Metropolitan Stadium

[Lafferty Daniel]

Courtesy of Photocard & Lowell Prescott.

[Lafferty Daniel]

[placount]

ehh one multi purpose to another. finally were getting a park worth watching baseball in

[Solair Wright]

The Met was a good stadium, but I've never seen it because it was gone before I was even born. In my opinion, I think the Twins got copped out in the move to the Metrodome. Sure, it's an indoor stadium, but it's like playing baseball inside your house - it doesn't work.

The trade-off certainly benefits their brother team, the Vikings, in my humble opinion. They didn't have to play in the sheer cold during the winter months, because of the trade-off, and the weather was (or is) usually harshly cold in December.

This stadium was actually a better home of the Twins than the Metrodome, and the Metrodome is a dump of a baseball stadium. For American professional/college football, however...

[Seattle1]

Way better than a dome that's for sure, consarnit! :grouchy

[Sean O]

ehh one multi purpose to another. finally were getting a park worth watching baseball in

Ooh, where?

I'd love to see the Twins get a great park some day. Maybe in 25 years after they dump the one under construction.

[Lafferty Daniel]

Ooh, where?

I'd love to see the Twins get a great park some day. Maybe in 25 years after they dump the one under construction.

You're such a buzzkill Sean.

[Candlestick60]

Those are some cool pics of old Met stadium :cap: C60

[PeteU]

That was a funky old ballpark, the Met. One of the "in-betweens"--after the classical era, but before the concrete donut multipurpose era.

It bore a strong resemblence to a smaller version of Mile High Stadium. The exterior looked somewhat unfinished, or alternately somewhat temporary, like one of those rollercoasters at the fair that they assemble in a couple of days and then disassemble once the fair ends. But it was baseball out in the open and in the elements, and the Twins are now worse off in the Dome.

I grew up after it closed and was demolished, and this being the days before the internet and quick access to all the pictures in the world, I didn't even know what the place looked like for the longest while. When I finally saw a picture, it was much different than what I expected. But there was always a sense of mystery to the place prior to that.

And to think, now it's just a big mall. Well, we will soon again see what outdoor baseball in April in Minnesota will be like. I'm very curious.

[Solair Wright]

Here are some pictures of "The Met" that you can see:


Replica


Football configuration


Drawing of Metropolitan Stadium

How do those look?

[Elvis]

I have a soft spot for the Met, not for its "architecture", which is a 0 on a scale of 1-10 (gotta love the ghetto hospital/abandoned warehouse exterior look), but for its engineering.

Opened in 1956, the stadium was the first ever American stadium to feature a complete cantilever deck design. Both the mezzanine deck and the upper deck were a 100% cantilever, meaning that even the last back rows of each deck were suspended over the lower deck--quite daring and innovative for its time. Consider that Candlestick Park, opened 4 years later, used posts to support its upper deck. Also, the football left field upper deck, added in 1965 was a very aggressive cantilever (75%).

I heard the stadium was neglected by its owners (The local stadium authority), and by 1981, the upper deck was actually condemmed due to unsafe railing conditions. :noidea





The Met as it appeared in 1956

[placount]

I heard the stadium was neglected by its owners (The local stadium authority), and by 1981, the upper deck was actually condemmed due to unsafe railing conditions. :noidea

yea thats true.

as a side note, my grandfather owned a bitunimous company(asphalt) and they had a contract to do the parking lots and part of the payment was season tickets for viking games. so my mom tells me of being taken out to bloomington in the cold to watch the vikings and hating it. its a shame that she didnt enjoy it because she was watching the golden era of viking football with bud grants purple people eaters.

[riverfrontier]

I was actually there once in 1980. A's-Twins. Billy Martin, etc. I still have a photograph of the marquee outside advertising the upcoming 'Black and Blue' tour. I also have a photograph of my brother and myself standing in front of the Rubik's Cube motif that was the exterior. It may look silly now, but it was once of its time. As was the haircut I sported in the photo. Go go Godzilla.

[Candlestick60]

If anyone has pics of the scoreboard from the MET id like to see them:atthepc C60

[Lafferty Daniel]

If anyone has pics of the scoreboard from the MET id like to see them:atthepc C60

1975



Photo courtesy of Lowell Prescott.