Metropolitan Stadium Retrospective Guide

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Metropolitan Stadium - history, photos and more of the Minnesota Twins former ballpark

Information and pictures of Metropolitan Stadium, former home of the Minnesota Twins

Metropolitan Stadium Retrospective Guide. Chronicling the construction, expansions, the acquisition of NFL and MLB tenants.

Metropolitan Stadium was dedicated in September 1955 and opened on April 24, 1956 as the home of the Class AAA Minneapolis Millers of the American Association, but it was never built to be a minor-league stadium. In the mid-1950s, the Twin Cities civic leaders considered themselves ready to enter the “big leagues” and launched a pursuit of major-league football and baseball teams. To further these efforts, the Baseball Committee of the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce paid $478,899 for 164 acres of farmland in rural Bloomington, to be used to build a baseball stadium for a major-league ball team.

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Metropolitan Stadium / Minnesota Twins / 1961-1981

Metropolitan Stadium became a major-league ballpark on April 21, 1961, when 24,606 fans showed up for the Twins’ home opener. It took some time for Metropolitan Stadium to make the 40,000-sea…

Minneapolis’s pursuit of a team predated this commitment to a stadium, however. This was an era when local sportswriters acted in several different capacities, and one of the leaders to bring baseball to Minnesota was Charles O. Johnson, the executive sports editor of the Minneapolis Tribune (now the Minneapolis Star Tribune). On the behalf of local business leaders, Johnson made inquiries at the baseball commissioner’s office in New York in the early 1950s about possible expansion plans. At the same time the Boston Braves of the National League moved to Milwaukee, which opened the possibility that other franchise shifts could be forthcoming.

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