Metropolitan Stadium
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Metropolitan Stadium (often referred to as "the Met") was a sports stadium that once stood in Bloomington, Minnesota, USA.
The stadium was built in 1955 at a cost of $6 million to attract a major league baseball team to Minnesota. Four teams flirted with moving to Bloomington between 1955 and 1960. Before the Giants succumbed to the promises of San Francisco mayor George Christopher, Horace Stoneham was set to move his club to Minneapolis. Before indignant Congressmen stepped in and roared about the national pastime belonging to the nation's capital, the Washington Senators were headed for the Twin Cities. Cleveland might have been on their way too, but rabid Rocky Colavito fans inspired civic pride and the club remained in northeast Ohio. The Philadelphia Athletics also considered Minnesota and might have chosen the Met over Kansas City if Minneapolis had moved with a little more determination when the A's were shopping for a new home.
Metropolitan Stadium, when it opened, sat in the middle of a 161-acre plot with all excess land set aside for parking. In 1959, the park had seats for 22,000 and was enlarged for the Twins before the 1961 season.
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. In the 1950s, Calvin Griffith opined regarding the stadium that it was the finest facility in Minor League ball, and comparable to a top-tier stadium for the Majors.
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 Millers and their perennial crosstown rival St. Paul Saints were then promptly folded by Major League Baseball. 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.
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 Twins played their last game at the Met on Sept 30, 1981 losing to Kansas City 5-2 on a rainy afternoon. The Vikings played their last game on Dec 20, 1981, dropping a 10-6 decision to the Kansas City Chiefs, the same team that topped the Vikings in Super Bowl IV, the first of four Super Bowl failures for the team. Met Stadium was officially abandoned when the Vikings and the Twins moved to the Metrodome in January 1982 and the Kicks had folded after 1981 soccer season. For the next three years, Met Stadium just sat there being unused, decaying and was prone to vandalism. Demolition kickoff for Metropolitan Stadium was started on Jan 28, 1985 and demolition continued for the next four months. After the rubble was cleared, 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 The Park at MOA, 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.
Quote
"There is not a finer facility in all of minor league baseball, and not two better in the Majors." - Calvin Griffith, 1959External links
| Preceded by: Griffith Stadium 1911–1960 | Home of the Minnesota Twins 1961–1981 | Followed by: Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome 1982–present |
| Preceded by: First stadium | Home of the Minnesota Vikings 1961–1981 | Followed by: Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome 1982–present |
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