However, the NFL persuaded the team's owners to pull out of the AFL in January 1960 and join the NFL as an expansion team in 1961, and was later named the Minnesota Vikings. However, it was originally the home of a minor-league team, the Minneapolis Millers of the American Association.
Several members of the Minneapolis Millers came out and posed for photos as pitcher Joe Margoneri tossed balls to catcher Carl Sawatski. However, the Twins still won the game, with Tovar singling home the winning run with two out in the last of the 11th. Another fire struck a set of storage shacks barely three weeks later although this did not affect the stadium itself. [33] Fans, sensing that this was the final game of any sort at the stadium, were more determined to claim souvenirs. The Minneapolis Millers minor league baseball team was the original tenant from 1956 to 1960, but Metropolitan Stadium was best known as the home of the American League's Minnesota Twins and the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League (NFL); both played at the "Met" for 21 seasons, from 1961 through 1981. The Minnesota Kicks of the North American Soccer League (NASL) also played there from 1976 to 1981. The lure of the Met eventually achieved its objective. The Twins won the game, 19-12. The gridiron ran from right field toward third base, with barely enough room to squeeze in the playing field and end zones. But this time the Minneapolis business community decided that, if it was going to foot the bill, it might as well have the stadium within its own city limits. Metropolitan Stadium (often referred to as "the Met", "Met Stadium", or now "the Old Met" to distinguish from the Metrodome) was an outdoor sports stadium in the north central United States, located in Bloomington, Minnesota, a suburb south of Minneapolis. Milwaukee found itself in a fortunate position when a major-league team was ready to move, having just built a new stadium for the minor-league Brewers; instead it was used by the big-league Braves. Up to this point, all 16 major-league teams occupied just ten cities.
The interruption was explained with an announcement that the Bloomington police had been told an explosion would take place at Met Stadium at 9:30. The previous press quarters, on top of the third deck, were converted into six elite boxes, an early albeit simpler version of the luxury suites that are a staple of modern stadiums.
Less convenient to the explanation is that Milwaukee built a new stadium in the early 1950s and the Giants and the Minneapolis Baseball and Athletic Association had plenty of time to build the ballpark before the war began. The team's last game played was a home playoff loss, 30 to the Fort Lauderdale Strikers, on September 6, 1981. The Vikings actually paid for this new grandstand in return for reduced rent;[10] this location was prime sideline seating in the football configuration. Home plate would be in the southwest corner, near the corner of Glenwood and Xerxes. The Twin Cities joined other cities in trying to land the St. Louis Browns. Demolition kickoff for Metropolitan Stadium started in 1985 on January 28, and continued for the next four months. [14] A preseason football game was held each September at the Met for its first five years, 1956 through 1960: The Met finally got a football team when the new American Football League (AFL) announced MinneapolisSt. [24] In the game's final minutes, many of the 41,110 fans in attendance began dismantling seats and bleachers, and thousands stormed the field once the game ended. The structure rose quickly over the next month. A neighboring restaurant, McCarthys Caf, had sold the land to the association at a reduced price because of the potential business it would generate. One of these owners created a barricade of farm equipment along his property line that ran directly through the future infield. 
Weather often delayed or postponed Twins games, but a game between the Twins and Boston Red Sox at Met Stadium on the night of August 25, 1970, was interrupted for a different reason.
However, many of the fans, and others, found their way onto the field. This action by itself did not mean the end of Metropolitan Stadium, because the options included a remodeling of the Met for baseball with a new football stadium built adjacent to it. A new press box was built into the second deck. To ready the stadium for the Twins, a $9million renovation increased the seating capacity from about 22,000 to over 30,000 by the completion of the Twins' inaugural season.
The only blast of the night was from Bostons Tony Conigliaro, who homered in the eighth inning to give the Red Sox a 1-0 victory. 
By going to cantilever construction for the overhanging decks, architect Foster Dunwiddie of Thorshov and Cerny, Inc. had found a way to eliminate the posts, which often block the view of some fans in other stadiums.
From 1961 to 1970, the Twins generally had competitive teams and drew at least one million fans, then considered a benchmark for a successful season. An impasse had already developed between Minneapolis and St. Paul interests over the site of the new stadium. Met Stadium remained partially dismantled for several years before being demolished, and remained a vacant site for several more years before a large shopping center, the Mall of America, was erected on the site. The site was approximately equidistant from the downtowns of Minneapolis and St. Paul, and it was believed this would be the best location for a prospective major league team. Paul as one of its charter cities for the inaugural 1960 season. The Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce asked its president, Gerald Moore, to explore the possibility.
Cullum, Dick, First Step Taken Toward Bringing Big League Baseball to Twin Cities, Minneapolis Tribune, March 24, 1952, 1. When the Giants finally sold the property, they reportedly received a price more than four times as much as they had bought it for. In the fall of 1953, St. Paul voters approved a bond issue for a new ballpark in the Midway area of the city. The Twins also benefited from the extra capacity provided by the new grandstand as they hosted two major events in 1965. 
)[8] The Vikings hosted and won the 1969 NFL Championship Game at the stadium,[23] the last NFL game prior to the 1970 merger. Sixty years before, Nicollet Park had been built in three weeks. However, the land remained dormant. [7], On February 7, 1956, an accident occurred on the construction site when a portable heater used to cure concrete exploded in the stadium's basement.
It was expected that, since Minneapolis interests had sold the bonds for the original stadium construction, funding for an upgrade for the Met would come once again from Minneapolis. The diamond was aligned southeast (home plate to center field); recommended alignment is east-northeast.[20]. We have to go to that old crate a great many times to see one well played ball game. In Nicollet Park, where every pitcher has to work hard on every batter and where the poorest ball player in the league may upset all percentages and make a burlesque of the game of baseball, a fan does not see any fraction of the number of genuine baseball plays he would see in a standard ball park. Hall, Halsey, Glenwood-Wirth Area Picked for New Ball Park, Minneapolis Tribune, June 10, 1949, 16. Its possible the Giants got cold feet or delayed the start of construction so long that the eventual war in Korea created material shortages and hampered plans. [5] The stadium would replace Nicollet Park as the home of the American Association's Minneapolis Millers. Years later, a restaurant employee told reporter R.T. Rybak, We wanted to put it in the contract that the sale would not be final unless the stadium was built, but [Giants owner Horace] Stoneham said that wasnt necessary because we are all men of our word.. 555 N. Central Ave. #416 After the rubble was cleared, the lot sat vacant for several years, although the nearby Met Center continued to provide entertainment for NHL hockey fans for another decade. In 1979 the Twins stayed in the race until the final week of the season and drew one million fans for the second time since 1970 and for the last time at Met Stadium.
[7][35] Unlike the chair at the Mall, the Met's outfield seating featured green bleacher-style benches. [7] It was well known as a hitter's park; its short foul lines343 feet (105m) to left (east), 330 feet (101m) to right (south)were particularly friendly to pull hitters such as Harmon Killebrew. It soon became apparent to the Minneapolis committee that a new stadium would be needed to lure a team to Minnesota. The 1977 season was exciting for fans because of the play of the team, which was in the title race for much of the season, and because of Rod Carew, who finished the season with a .388 batting average and was named the American League Most Valuable Player. The film is available at the Minnesota Historical Society. With first place in the West Division at stake and the fans receiving a replica Carew jersey as a giveaway, a crowd of nearly 47,000 turned out for a wild game. Hafrey, Danie J., Property Owners Protest, Try to Halt Start on Stadium, Minneapolis Tribune, June 19, 1955, 1 (Upper Midwest Section).
In preparation, the Vikings tripled their security force for the contest.
Hertz, Will, Stadium Drive Tops Goal by 51%, Minneapolis Tribune, April 1, 1955, 1. [1] The Millers and Saints were then promptly folded by Major League Baseball. [17], The old flagpole at the stadium was purchased by the Minneapolis/Richfield American Legion Post when the stadium was razed. Additional sources of information on Metropolitan Stadium and the Metrodome include Stadiums and Major League Sports: The Twin Cities by James Quirk (a publication of the Brookings Institute, 1997) and Stadium Games by Jay Weiner (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2000). Beginning in 1953, inspired by the Boston Braves' move to Milwaukee, Gerald Moore, the president of the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce, led the drive to lure a major league team to Minnesota by constructing a modern stadium built to major league specifications. [10] The night before the final game, home plate was stolen, and after the final game ended, hundreds of fans gathered on the field, searching (mostly unsuccessfully) for mementoes. [30] This accelerated the push for construction of a new stadium, the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, which was completed in 1982. Its even possible that the entities only used the promise of a ballpark to get the land on the cheap. This stadium proposal was eventually derailed by the citys Board of Estimates and Taxation. The hope of getting major-league baseball was never even used by proponents in helping to get public funding for the ballpark.. Originally the triple-decked grandstand extended only around the infield. A triple-decked permanent grandstand extended only to the end of each of the dugouts, although portable seating expanded the capacity and a crowd of 18,366 attended the first game. By the early 1970s, the Vikings were making noises about moving out. Cowles, John, Jr., City Gets Stadium Bond Go-Ahead, Minneapolis Tribune, July 1, 1954, 1.
The drive, when completed on March 31, 1955, had exceeded its goal by more than 50 percent, with $1,212,000 in bonds being sold. One of the most significant components of Met Stadium was not what it had, but what it didnt have: posts to support decks or roofs above. (Schwab even lived in the Polo Grounds during the season, in a small apartment beneath the left-field stands.). Cullum, Dick, Better Ball Park Means Better Ball, Minneapolis Tribune, June 14, 1948, 22. In addition to the Twins and Vikings and later the Minnesota Kicks soccer team, Met Stadium hosted events ranging from wrestling matches to a concert by the Beatles, who came to Minnesota on their second tour of the United States, on August 21, 1965. Join us August 17-21 in Baltimore. A series of photographs taken in the mid-1980s during Metropolitan Stadium's abandonment. Hafrey, Daniel J., Dispute on Stadium Settled, Minneapolis Tribune, June 20, 1955, 1. In the 1965 baseball season, both the All-Star Game and the World Series were played at Metropolitan Stadium, one of the few times that coincidence has happened since the former event was inaugurated in 1933.
New York Giants owner Horace Stoneham assured the sellers and the village of plans to build an 18,000-seat stadium, with construction to start immediately and completion possibly in time for the 1950 season. Metropolitan Stadium Is Now Official Name, Minneapolis Tribune, July 20, 1956, 15. The game was moved to Memorial Stadium due to a scheduling conflict with the Twins. [24] Hundreds of injuries were reported, mostly minor scrapes and bruises but also multiple head injuries sustained during the melee.[34]. [24] An NASL attendance record was set one month later, when Pel and the New York Cosmos drew 46,164 fans to Metropolitan Stadium. The gridiron ran from around third base to right field (north-south), with barely enough room to fit the playing field and end zones. The biggest day of the season came on Sunday, June 26, as the Twins played the Chicago White Sox. Briere, Tom, Tovar Bats Twins to 5-4 Win in 11th: Yanks Fall in Game of 8 Errors, Minneapolis Tribune, April 13, 1965, 19. However, the terms of the agreement in which the land was sold to Triple Five Group, owners of the Mall of America, do not allow another stadium to be built on the site.
An added bonus was the World Series as Minnesota won the American League pennant. A ballpark never was built at the Glenwood site. Cold hasn't helped Vikings recently", "Cleveland Browns at Minnesota Vikings January 4th, 1970", "Minnesota Kicks The story of Professional Soccer in Minnesota", "August 21, 1965: Live: Metropolitan Stadium, Minneapolis", "That New Twins Ballpark Flagpole Will Look Familiar", "Allman Brothers Band: Bloomington, Minnesota", "HISTORY OF THE METRODOME ON COOL OF THE EVENING: THE 1965 MINNESOTA TWINS", "Kansas City Chiefs at Minnesota Vikings December 20th, 1981", "Viking Fans Tear Apart Metropolitan Stadium", Base from Metropolitan Stadium, Minnesota Historical Society, News coverage of the Vikings' last game at the Met (YouTube), December 1981: Last Vikings game at Met Stadium ends in melee, 2001 Major League Baseball contraction plan, Frankford High School's Community Memorial Stadium, Municipal Stadium (Kansas City, Missouri), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Metropolitan_Stadium&oldid=1095885951, Defunct baseball venues in the United States, Defunct soccer venues in the United States, Buildings and structures in Bloomington, Minnesota, North American Soccer League (19681984) stadiums, Infobox mapframe without OSM relation ID on Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 1 July 2022, at 00:41. Roy Smalley popped out to end the game as well as an era of baseball on the former cornfield. This article was written byStew Thornley. The latter game brought 15,990 fans to the stadium, including Calvin Griffith, who described the stadium as "terrific. In the midst of the bond drive by the Minute Men, the Minnesota Legislature created the Metropolitan Sports Area Commission to operate the new stadium. The Minute Men organized into 16 teams, named after major-league teams, and each had a quota of $50,000 to reach the overall goal. Kimmes Construction Company started the first work on the 160-acre site, performing grading, drainage, surfacing, sodding, sanitary sewer installation, and miscellaneous construction.
Carew had four hits, scored five runs, and drove in six, capping his performance in the last of the eighth inning with a home run that raised his batting average to .403 and drew another long ovation from the fans. [30] At one point, there were plans to place a dome over Metropolitan Stadium, or build a new football stadium located between the Met and the Met Center, which had opened in 1967 just north of the Met.[31]. Conversations were had with Violet Bidwill Wolfner, owner of the Chicago Cardinals, about moving her team to the stadium. A convenient reason given was that the outbreak of the Korean conflict in 1950 brought a halt to construction of sports facilities. [19] Met Stadium distance signs included meters 197477. In 1977 the Minnesota Legislature passed a no-site stadium bill. Fire Sweeps Stadium in Bloomington, Minneapolis Tribune, February 27, 1956, 1.
Phoenix, AZ 85004 The Twins, in their final years at Met Stadium, twice more topped one million in attendance, in 1977 and 1979.
Fans were directed to go to the parking lots. In 1965 the bleachers in left field were replaced by a double-decked grandstand.
By the park's final season, railings in the grandstand's third deck had become a major safety hazard. Correspondence with Bob Buege, February 2004. The first was the All-Star Game in July. [5] (At the time of its opening, the stadium still lacked an official name; the park was not named until a July announcement declaring it "Metropolitan Stadium".)[8]. The stadium was built using cantilever construction for the overhanging decks, eliminating posts that blocked the fans' view.
One of the first proposals for a new stadium was a doozy: an 80,000-seat domed stadium exclusively for football on the northwest edge of downtown Minneapolis. Paul International Airport. Southwest of the airport, the stadium site is now the Mall of America, which opened in1992.
Later in the 1950s McCarthys Caf unsuccessfully sued the Millers and Giants to get the land back. [7] Many spectators and dignitaries attended the groundbreaking, including Minneapolis mayor Eric G. Hoyer and several members of the Minneapolis Millers. Paul International Airport, "Chicago Tribune - Historical Newspapers", "The Long, Cold and Sordid History of the Minnesota Vikings", "Notebook: Home-field advantage?
Exploding tanks ripped through the concrete floor and one bomblike tank landed a few feet from the left-field fence, almost the first home run in the new stadium, said narrator Dick Enroth in a film made by WCCO Radio and Television soon after the stadium opened. [11] During the Twins' first ten seasons at the Met, they outdrew the average American League team each year.[9]. For a time, there was talk of building a new park for the Twins on the old Met site that would be connected to the Mall of America. The 330 marker in right was actually closer to right-center, leading to speculation that right field was even closer. The placement of the concrete had just been completed, and butane heaters were being used to warm the concrete as it cured. A beer vendor set his cases on second base and continued his business, quickly selling out. Contact SABR, http://sabr.org/sites/default/files/MetropolitanStadium%28MN%29.JPG, /wp-content/uploads/2020/02/sabr_logo.png, a game between the Twins and Boston Red Sox at Met Stadium on the night of August 25, 1970, A Pennant for the Twin Cities: The 1965 Minnesota Twins. [7] Under major league rules of the time, by virtue of owning the Millers, the Giants owned the major league rights to Minneapolis. Met Stadium was officially abandoned when the Vikings and the Twins moved to the Metrodome in January 1982, and the Kicks folded after the 1981 soccer season. While the initial talks focused on a stadium for the Vikings, the Twins quickly joined the discussions. This article appeared in A Pennant for the Twin Cities: The 1965 Minnesota Twins (SABR, 2015), edited by Gregory H. Wolf.
The site was bounded on the north by Olson Memorial Highway, on the south by Glenwood Avenue, on the west by Xerxes Avenue North, and on the east by the Great Northern Railroad tracks. The Twins took an 8-1 lead, only to have the White Sox cut the gap with six runs in the third inning. The committee offered the use of an extremely spartan stadium on the park boards Parade Grounds, on the western edge of downtown Minneapolis, until a new stadium could be built. A half-century of inertia had been broken, and seeing Milwaukee, another Midwestern city approximately the same size as the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, get a team made believers not just out of the burgeoning major-league committee but of Minnesota fans in general. At the same time, Axel Ohman Company began the brick work. After the game fans in search of souvenirs ravaged the stadium, taking what wasnt bolted down and many things that were. The following season, they made it to the Super Bowl, their first of four appearances in the Super Bowl in an eight-year span. The pole was sold back to the Twins and restored in 2010; it was then placed in the plaza at Target Field.[27]. Beebe, Bob, Triple-Decked Stadium Is a Construction Miracle, Minneapolis Tribune, April 22, 1956, 16. The Vikings weren't willing to pay to build seats in an area that would have been in the end zone in the football configuration, and the Twins couldn't afford it. Glenn Adams provided the early fireworks with a grand slam en route to a team-record eight RBIs in the game. (Work on the grandstand was continuing as the 1965 baseball season began, and one of the construction workers was able to corral a home-run ball hit into the stands by Elston Howard of the New York Yankees in the season opener.).
Wooden bleachers were brought onto the field during football season to bring fans closer to the game. The players congregated on the field, away from the stadium structure itself. For instance, there was no prospect of building permanent seats along third base. [6], After a plan by architects Thorshov & Cerny won approval, groundbreaking was scheduled to begin on June 20, 1955. The new grandstand in left field was for the benefit of the National Football Leagues Minnesota Vikings; it allowed more fans to sit along the sidelines for football games. Between 1956 and 1961, the Met did not earn enough to cover required interest payments on the bond, and the facility would have been in default except that certain large bondholders, civic-minded firms, and individuals agreed to wait for their money until major league sports made it to the stadium.. Phone: 602.496.1460 Rybak, R.T., Bid Farewell to the St. Louis Park Giants, St. Louis Park (Minnesota) Sun, December 13, 1978. A brass plaque in the shape of home plate, embedded in the floor in the northwest corner of Nickelodeon Universe, commemorates the site's days as a sports venue by marking where home plate once sat. Metropolitan Stadium was considered a good venue for baseball but not for football, even after the new grandstand was built in 1965. He stressed the need for action and quickly., However, the first action came from residents in the Glenwood-Wirth area who objected to the site and quickly formed a committee to circulate a petition that read, This group goes on record unanimously in requesting the park commissioners not to take the contemplated action in establishing a ball park in the Wirth park area, nor to sell, transfer, or lease the property to a commercial enterprise., One of the strategies for promoting a new stadium was to denigrate the existing one. The stadium would be surrounded by a 5,100-space parking ramp that would be uncovered on the top level to allow the tradition of pregame tailgating to continue. However, it is very likely that a new stadium would have been needed in any event, as the Met was not well maintained. The fans mingled with the players and got autographs while vendors walked through the crowd, hawking concessions. Multiple exhibition games featuring Major League teams were held at the Met at this time; a game between the Detroit Tigers and Cincinnati Reds was held at the Met in 1957, and a matchup between the Senators and the Philadelphia Phillies was held shortly after the 1958 All-Star break. Due to this design flaw, fans in the bleachers literally had to leave the stadium to get to the grandstand. According to James Quirk in Stadiums and Major League Sports: The Twin Cities, a 1997 Brookings Institute publication, For the individuals holding the revenue bonds issued to finance the Met, it [the arrival of the Twins and footballs Minnesota Vikings, who also used the stadium] could not have come at a better time. The left-field grandstand was originally planned to be capable of sliding toward or away from the gridiron (as Denver's Mile High Stadium later would be), but that part of the project was never realized. The Giants held on to the property for more than 20 years, and the empty lot eventually was called Candlestick Park, the same name of the stadium the Giants built on Candlestick Point in San Francisco after moving west. The National Football League (NFL) was also interested in placing a team at the Met. The reason for the new stadium was not to provide better facilities for the minor-league Millers but to have a first-class stadium available for a major-league team to eventually occupy. [24] To help speed things along, the Kicks' owners let two thousand fans enter the stadium for free. The Twins played their first home game on April 21, 1961, with a loss to the new Washington Senators (now the Texas Rangers). Take Me Out to the Ball Park, Construction Bulletin, May 3, 1956, 52-55. [7] The team enjoyed great success in their first four seasons in Minnesota, winning a division title each year. General resources on the Metrodome include The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome Souvenir Book, compiled by Dave Mona (Minneapolis: MSP Publications, 1982) and Uncovering the Dome, by Amy Klobuchar (Minneapolis: Bolger Publications, 1982). For instance, when bleachers were erected to expand the stadium for the Twins, no concourse was built to connect them to the rest of the stadium. [17] Unlike most multipurpose stadiums built during this time, there were very few bad seats for baseball. (The Chicago Cardinals, after playing two games in Bloomington in 1959, announced in March 1960 that they were moving to St. The distances down the line to right and left were 316 feet, 3 inches, and the distance to center field was 405 feet, and the outfield was surrounded by an 8-foot-high fence.