Metropolitan Stadium (often referred to as "the Met")
was a sports stadium that once stood in Bloomington, Minnesota, USA. If
you're wondering what became of the land where Metropolitan Stadium once
stood, it is now part of the Mall of America - the largest shopping mall
in the United States. You can almost sense Harmon Killebrew's presence as
you make your way to Orange Julius.
At
a glance...
METROPOLITAN STADIUM
Facility
statistics
Location
Bloomington,
a suburb south of
Minneapolis, Minnesota
1961:
Left
field line - 329 ft.
Left center field - 365 ft.
Center field - 412 ft.
Right center field - 365 ft.
Right field line - 329 ft.
1977:
Left field line - 343 ft.
Left center field - 360 ft.
Center field - 402 ft.
Right center field - 370 ft.
Right field line - 330 ft.
Backstop - 60 ft.
Bloomington's Metropolitan Stadium was built on farmland in the mid-50s
for the American Association's Minneapolis Millers. The Twins arrived in
1961 and called it home until the end of the 1981 season, when the moved
to the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome.
Although there was a number of new stadiums opened in the Super70s (such
as Three Rivers, Veterans
Stadium, Riverfront, and Busch
Stadium - the so-called "cookie
cutter stadiums"), all were replacing very old stadiums.
Metropolitan was the first major stadium of the modern age (for our
purposes, the 1950s and beyond) to be replaced.
History
It opened in 1956 as the home of a minor league baseball team, the
Minneapolis Millers of the American Association, replacing ancient
Nicollet Park and built to specifications of major league baseball.
Although located in Bloomington, the stadium was paid for by the City of
Minneapolis.
The Millers were then the top farm team of the New York Giants, and
there was some hope or expectation that the Giants might relocate there.
However, the "Jints" chose to follow the Brooklyn Dodgers to the
west coast. The City by the Bay had been the top farm team of the Boston
Red Sox, so as part of the deal, the Millers' parent team then became the
Red Sox. The Bostonians were certainly not planning to move anywhere, but
another American League entry, the Washington Senators did, in 1961, to
become the Minnesota Twins. The Twins were joined that fall by a National
Football League expansion team called the Minnesota Vikings.
The Twins and the Vikings then played at the "Met" from 1961
to 1981. The NASL soccer team Minnesota Kicks also played there from 1976
to 1981.
The Met was expanded several times through the years. During the summer
of 1961, the first two tiers of the triple-deck stand were extended down
the first base side, just past the right field corner. This was largely to
the benefit of the Vikings. For 1965, a large double-decked grandstand,
paid for by the Vikings, was installed in left field. This left the Met
with the unique configuration of a double deck in left field, and
bleachers behind third base. The big left field stand 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.
In 1965, both the Baseball All-Star Game and the World Series were
played at the Met, one of the few times that coincidence has happened
since that game was inaugurated in 1933.
Metropolitan Stadium!
Metropolitan
Stadium in Bloomington, Minnesota as seen
from beyond right field in the early
1960s.
Primary
research by Jim Herdman & David Vincent
Courtesy of Retrosheet.
The Met suffered the fate of some other publicly-owned stadiums, and
fell into disrepair during the 1970s, thus accelerating the push for
construction of a new stadium, the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, which was
completed in 1981. The Vikings and Twins moved to the Metrodome in 1982
and the Kicks got the boot. Metropolitan Stadium was demolished in 1985
and the lot sat vacant for several years, although the nearby Met Center,
which had opened in 1967 just north of the Met, continued to provide
entertainment for hockey fans.
The Mall of America, which opened in 1992, stands on the site of what
is now nostalgically called "the Old Met." A brass plaque
in the shape of home plate, embedded in the floor in the northwest corner
of "Camp Snoopy", commemorates the site's days as a sports
venue. Near the opposite corner, mounted high on the wall, is a red
stadium chair denoting the approximate landing spot of Harmon Killebrew's
longest home run, a blast to the upper deck in deep left-center field on
June 3, 1967.
To commemorate the Vikings, some have suggested there could be a statue
of Armen Terzian, in connection with the original "Hail Mary
pass" of December 28, 1975, but so far no action has been taken on
that idea.
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