Mile High Stadium

[DiggerODell]

I would also be curious, if Shea or Yankee Stadiums take as long to raze or are done in a similar fashion when the time comes. Hopefully someone from the NYC area might try to visit those venues once a week too?

I do plan to attend a game at each one of those venues in July and also visit the old Polo and Ebbets sites (much of the inspiration having derived from these threads on BB-F) I intend to bring a copy of Russ Hodges "Shot heard around the world". . . over and over as I stand next to the homeplate marker and take more photographs (and I don't care if anybody drops flower pots or not . .ha!) Well? I do . .. but hopefully not. The Brush Stairway (Polo Grounds) fascinates me too . . . hope i can cross that fence as another threader said they did in recent times.

[bleacherbum73]

It's interesting that they left most of the seats to the wrecking ball and also it appears that the goalpost is still standing in one endzone with half the stadium gone. Was there a reason it and the seats were not salvaged.

[DiggerODell]

It's interesting that they left most of the seats to the wrecking ball and also it appears that the goalpost is still standing in one endzone with half the stadium gone. Was there a reason it and the seats were not salvaged.

As I recollect the company that demolished Mile High began with the "South Goal Post" just in front of the South Stands, then took the SS's down first and worked clockwise around the park. The "North goal Post" was last to go (as my later photographs will show). It was this newstory on local TV that first got me interested to go out and photograph all the progress (not sure progress is the proper word . .ha!). Hence, I didn't not get any photos of the actual South Stands or Goal Post coming down.

They did not use a wrecking ball in the classic sense (not like the one used for Polo Grounds and Ebbets). Welders would cut away the structure and then those big ole grapplers (or jaws of life . . . well? perhaps "jaws of demise" in this case) would pull the cut pieces away and have it hauled off.

As for the seats. They did not save them all, but my son in law actually has one seat from the old park I don't recall how he procurred it but he's an avid Bronco fan and that seat is a prize possession of his. My later (about late March 2002) will show how they wasted alot of the seats on the east side of the park . . . those grapplers (or whatever they are called) would just swing back and forth knocking and breaking out alot of the plastic seats. I tried to photograph this but it's very difficult to lend proper representation in a still photograph. I always wish in retrospect that I had visited the site at night and seen about hauling away a section of seats (wouldn't been legal or right, but nonetheless, I regret not having done so.). I didn't inquire how to procure any legally either . .oh well? Live and learn . .die and forget it . . .

[Chevy114]

I wish I could have gone to a football gam there, they say the seats were right on top the sidelines. That would make for a good time harasing the other team!

[DiggerODell]

Continuing on.

[DiggerODell]

This is about a month and a half into the demolition. There are about 3 weeks to go plus some photos I took after it was all cleared.

[War Paint]

Why was the goal post still standing during demolition?


I grew up a huge Broncos fan (still am) and visited Mile High in it's baseball configuration back when it was a minor league park. It was 1988 or 89 before the Rockies. Highlight of my childhood seeing that place in person.

[DiggerODell]

Continuing on . . .

[DiggerODell]

I will attempt to upload the final weeks of this series of photos towards the end of the week. As I have said before, I took many more photos than these, and the most time consuming aspect of this is choosing 10 per each week.

[DiggerODell]

I don't recall exactly now, 6 years later, why I went down on a Tuesday instead of the previous Saturday's, perhaps it was getting near the end, or that my son was on spring break from college and wanted to see where the demolition progress was?

[DiggerODell]

Here are another 5 photos from that Tuesday in March of 2002.

[DiggerODell]

DRATS! In case anyone is actually reading this, I got sloppy and uploaded the 3-31-2002 photos while talking about the 3-21-2002 shots. ha! So here are the actual 3-21-2002 photos (I edited the Titles) and subsequently will not comment on the actual 3-31-2002 photos. Something tells me I shouldn't have said "anything" lmao . . . sounds too much like ole Yogi ... Took all the drama away (I guess the photos speak for themselves though) here I was perhaps gonna paraphrase the late great Jim McKay "and now, it's all gone" . . . but instead I end up quoting Marlon Brando's great line "I coulda been somebody! I coulda been a contendaa!" Ha

[DiggerODell]

Last of the actual 3-21 photos.

[Wahhmbulance]

these are some really great shots! Almost sad in a way, to watch one place fall in the shadow of another.

[DiggerODell]

these are some really great shots! Almost sad in a way, to watch one place fall in the shadow of another.

Great observation! That was very similar to my impression during that 2 1/2 mos. I watched old Mile High come down, and the reason I refrained from including too many with the new one in the photograph. Just enough to lend a perspective of their proximety to one another.

[DiggerODell]

continuing on . . .

[DiggerODell]

. . . and on

[DiggerODell]

This was the week I eluded to earlier in this thread how the "grappler" (or whatever it is referred to) would swing back and forth breaking and knocking the plastic seats off their mounts.

[DiggerODell]

About a month and a half after Mile High was all cleared away, I took the following photos. Even the "North Goal Post" was gone by now . . . There has never been a marker indicating the place ever existed (at least to my knowledge as of right now, I haven't stopped by there for a few years now)

[DiggerODell]

About a month and a half after Mile High was all cleared away, I took the following photos. Even the "North Goal Post" was gone by now . . . There has never been a marker indicating the place ever existed (at least to my knowledge as of right now, I haven't stopped by there for a few years now)

[whoisonit]

digger, you need to get over to that site this month and take phot's from similar angles so we can see 'what sits on the site ...' !

This is a great thread. Nice job.

[DiggerODell]

digger, you need to get over to that site this month and take phot's from similar angles so we can see 'what sits on the site ...' !

This is a great thread. Nice job.

I kind of sort of did as these final 2 demise uploads will show. I went out approx a year after the demolition began and took some photos of the "lovely parking lot" that sits where ole Mile High once stood.

Although I never stop there anymore, I do drive by it on I-25 every day on the way to work. I assure you, it looks the very same now as in these 2003 photographs (other than the fact that I now have a higher resolution camera . .ha)

[DiggerODell]

The final shots of the parking lot a year after demolition.

[DiggerODell]

On April 9, 1993 . . . 80227 baseball hungry fans, including my son and myself, packed the old Mile High to welcome their Colorado Rockies (who beat the now defunct Montreal Expos 11-4). I thought it would be . . . "novel" to take photos of the site 10 years later, so I did. I know it's korny, but I like stuff like that.

These photos have just sat in a folder on my computer the last 5 years. Nobody wanted to see them but myself . . . and even I got pretty bored with them after a couple of views. I'd have a freind over and ask them if they would like to see the photographs I took of old Mile High in it's final months and they would suddenly remember an errand they need to run for their wife . . ha!

It wasn't till I "finally" discovered this site (in April of this year!!!) and all it's threads that a brainstorm hit me . . . "why not upload all these damned photos which are collecting dust on your harddrive, and see if any of them suddenly have errands to run for their Mrs . . . or perhaps are just indifferent to them." Anyhow, I thank all of you that have browsed these photos and particulary those that have commented.

[DiggerODell]

On April 9, 1993 . . . 80227 baseball hungry fans, including my son and myself, packed the old Mile High to welcome their Colorado Rockies (who beat the now defunct Montreal Expos 11-4). I thought it would be . . . "novel" to take photos of the site 10 years later, so I did. I know it's korny, but I like stuff like that.

These photos have just sat in a folder on my computer the last 5 years. Nobody wanted to see them but myself . . . and even I got pretty bored with them after a couple of views. I'd have a freind over and ask them if they would like to see the photographs I took of old Mile High in it's final months and they would suddenly remember an errand they need to run for their wife . . ha!

It wasn't till I "finally" discovered this site (in April of this year!!!) and all it's threads that a brainstorm hit me . . . "why not upload all these damned photos which are collecting dust on your harddrive, and see if any of them suddenly have errands to run for their Mrs . . . or perhaps are just indifferent to them." Anyhow, I thank all of you that have browsed these photos and particulary those that have commented.