How does one make a ten-minute video on Metropolitan Stadium without mentioning the site is now the Mall of America?

That's the way football was meant to be played out in the cold they do it in Green Bay

The Met may have been old and decaying but the Vikings haven't had a real home field advantage in the postseason since they left in '81.

I have to say that watching football in that stadium was memorable. First, the Vikings had the psychological effect from the weather.

Fun fact, In the Mall of America, if you’re in Nickelodeon universe they have three original chairs from the Met on the wall of the building. And they have a plaque where home plate stood

Other errors include: 1. Calling the original tenants "The Minnesota Millers." No, they were the Minneapolis Millers. Both Minneapolis and St. Paul had American Association teams, and both built ballparks hoping to attract a MLB team. 2. Calling the Millers a Double A team. They were not. They were Triple-A.

I watched a lot of baseball games at Met Stadium and thought it was a great place to watch baseball. It was very strange that the Vikings had all their success at Metropolitan Stadium which was a stadium built for baseball and the Twins had all their success at the Metrodome which was really a football stadium.

I went to several Twins and Vikings games at the old Met, in the 70's. Took plenty of photos and silent home movies. Many can say they were at the infamous "Hail Mary" game between the Vikings and Cowboys but I know for a fact that I was there, along with some friends. We were sitting at the opposite end of the catch (3rd base seating for baseball). Also, in August 1965, The Beatles performed at the Met. One of only a few places they played that did not sell out and I believe tickets were $3, $4, $5 or so. The Vikings went to 4 Super Bowls while playing at the Met.......zero since playing indoors.

I AM not from Minnesota, but I have many fond memories of Metropolitan Stadium! it is the first mlb stadium in which I retrieved A MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL!!! it is the first major league stadium I sat in front row box seats!!! good times!

Nothing "multipurpose" about the Met. It was never designed as such. Football was simply shoehorned into the space.

Mall of America is on the site now

went to many of game in the 1960's i love that stadium

In addition to the Twins & Vikings, Metropolitan Stadium was also home of the Kicks of the NASL from 1976-81. During their time in the NASL, the Kicks had some of the highest per game attendance in the league & made the playoffs every season. However like many NASL teams in the early 80's (and would kill the league as a whole in 1984) the Kicks lost a ton of money and folded after the 1981 season. It wasn't until Minnesota United joined MLS in 2017 that top flight pro soccer would return to Minnesota.

Thanks so much for the video!! As a Vikings fan since ‘68 the Met will always have a place in my heart!! It wasn’t great but it was special!! I still think about the Met today!! I hated the change to the Metrodome!! Today we have a beautiful stadium but this old man misses Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington!! 😢

Amazing how much the area has changed. I went to the Mall of America this summer. The area is all built up. My cousins lived in Burnsville. Target Field is great. They have taken me their many times.

It was a grand old lady. Many Twins games with Pops. Miss those great times. Grill Hamburgers & hotdogs in the parking lot before the games.

This was not a bad stadium, it had more character than anything I ever visited with great sightlines. Oh, and I used to work there as security, met a ton of pro athletes.

Green Bay is 275 miles due east of Minneapolis. Chicago is 400 miles southeast. Both have NFL (and other) teams that play in open stadiums. There is no reason why the Vikings couldn't play in an open stadium, and indeed, their best years as a franchise occurred while doing so. The home field advantage of a late December or early January game in open air Minneapolis could be upwards of 10 points. Why would the Vikings give that up? Now, any for team that has to go play there in the playoffs, to them, its just another road game -- like going to Atlanta.

I seem to remember that for football, both teams shared the same sideline

Remember Reggie hitting a home run, over the centre field scoreboard. He did it on a NBC game of the week😊😊

I, along with 3 buddies from Henry H.S. in Minneapolis, ushered for the Twins & Vikings at the Met. In 1963, 64, & 65. In the winter months for the Vike's games, the Met was the coldest place on earth.

About the only part of the old Metropolitan Stadium that still exists is the overflow parking to the east of the Mall of America. The old yellow foul poles were used on a baseball field for Normandale Community College, but they were knocked down about twenty years ago.

My mom's side of the family is from the twin cities. I was born in 81 so I never got to see it. But plenty of trips to the "Homer" dome. Lots of good memories back then, the Kirby Puckett days. 😊 And the announcer, the way he said "Chuuuuuuuuck Knoblooooock. Good times. 😊

I clearly remember watching the Vikings from our 2nd deck end zone seats, standing on newspapers to keep our feet from freezing. Loved it.

I love the old Met. Saw so many events all the way from the Twins Vikings and Minnesota Kicks games as well as the Eagles , Steve Miller band & Pablo Cruz concert . Hate to even guess how many times I entered the Old Met .

Watching the Vikings play home games in blizzards was actually kind of fun

Met Stadium was a great place for baseball, especially night games. It felt like the box seats went down closer to the field than many stadiums. It's simplicity and lack of center field seats and a huge scoreboard was a cool background if you were fortunate enough be sitting in the the vicinity behind home plate. Maybe I'm old fashioned but it was also nice not to have all of the extraneous lighting, endless music and endless commercials on the big screen. Between innings was organ music of all things!

Interesting this stadium was one of the early cantilever designs from that era that didn't have I beams supporting the upper deck partially blocking some lower bowl views.

It was a great baseball park! Agree about the problems with football there, but I loved seeing Twins games there.

What the Met did offer the Vikings was the best late season and post-season home advantage ever. Imagine being from the West Coast, south, or southeast, and stepping off a plane into the brutal cold knowing you had to play in that tomorrow. 🤣😁

Minnesota can't play outdoors in the winter because it's too cold and harsh......but the Packers can at Lambeau Field? The Minnesota Vikings have NEVER been to a Super Bowl since leaving Metropolitan Stadium, that is a fact. You could say the karma and curse are real for Minnesota intentionally abandoning and destroying the Old Met to make a shopping mall.

Dude, Bloomington is 9 miles from downtown Minneapolis. It's closer than St. Paul, the other twin. You seem to exaggerate for a living.

It's crazy to see Hwy 77 being a dirt road.

This place sat dormant for about 3 years. My brother and I would sneak into the stadium, climb the scoreboard, unscrew lightbulbs and toss them on to the warning track. Gen X stuff.

🛑🛑 The Vikings haven’t done 💩, since leaving the Met. 💯 The weather was the Vikings “Neutralizer”, but now in the dome, there is No Advantage. 💯👍

I was just curious about the area behind home plate. There is a light blue colored semi-circle behind it with the writing of "TWINS" in it and paths that go to the dugouts. Does anyone know what kind of material that surface was made of? I've never seen any other field with that kind of design.

I remember watching games on TV as a kid at the met the weather was horr8ble alot of times

I remember watching Twins games from the Met on TV. Must've been the angle of the grandstand because on TV the bases always looked closer than 90' apart. The whole field just seemed small.

I would've loved to play some pickup baseball here when it was abandoned

Sadly, aesthetics of the stadium back then were secondary to pack the seats in.. function over form… of course as time has gone on and teams have learned how to demand more (and more and more) from their home cities… they now have to build these megastructures starting with the Skydome in Toronto. I still think we need to go back to the old days.. where if you don’t like the City owned venue.. you are welcome to build your own…. and for many years.. they did. Which is why Fenway, Wrigley, original Yankee Stadium.. Ebbets, The Polo Grounds (among others) lasted for so long. Teams built them and maintained them… now, teams don’t own shit and with that they hold their communities hostage.. look at what’s happening in Oakland.. they fought hard for something in Oakland (and the city has been fighting for them too).. and just as it’s ready to bear fruit.. they take a lesser deal in Vegas.. who still has to fight the fights that Oakland has already done… The Met may not have been much.. but it served it’s purpose… may not have been pretty.. but pretty was NOT part of the EQ back then.

You are judging this stadium by todays standards. A logic flaw. When this was built in the 50's, it was state of the art. First ever cantilever design so the upper decks didn't need support beams underneath, blocking the view of the field.

It served its purpose but no tears should be shed for this field that became increasingly outdated every year it existed.

I heard a description of its architecture as "early Tinker Toy."

The Minnesota Kicks pro soccer team also played at Met stadium I remember sitting high up on wooden bleachers with my soccer team cheering for my favorite player Ace probably 1979.

You mention the Minneapolis Millers were members of the American Association, this was a AAA league, not AA as you stated. Otherwise, thanks for creating the video. As an admirer of Minnesota Twins history, they had an outstanding brodcasting team that consisted of Ray Scott, Herb Carneal, and Halsey Hall. All three are upper Midwest legends.

Nice to hear your opinion - I have my opinion, too! Cookie-Cutter Riverfront Stadium was PERFECT for the Cincinnati Reds, especially from 1970-78 and the Big Red Machine. Helpful to the Bengals, too. BRM fans were more focused on Winning and Championships in the 70s. All that color with the bunting back then made Riverfront Stadium beautiful! Perhaps being a poor-to-fair franchise would have made a difference, but Riverfront Stadium was great for that time. Keep the pretty parks and the losing! 😎

i spent many a day watching twins and vikings games at this place as a kid. we could bike there and would meet players in the parking lot after games to get autographs.

This was a baseball stadium, not a multipurpose stadium. Yes, they played football here, but that doesn't make it multipurpose anymore than wrigley or fenway, both of which hosted football games.

It's too bad they didn't take care of those old stadiums could have used it to play college in high school games in would be neat to see that

I miss the frozen tundra

what does the space look like today? The Mall of American was built on the site where the stadium was.

People can criticize the Met but a lot of people had fun there and great memories were made

Yea but notting like the Ole school days 🏟 Stadium 😊

The configuration for Vikings games was indeed super weird.

Visiting teams had heaters on the sidelines but Bud Grant wouldn't allow the Vikings to use them.

Does anyone know how the football field was configured inside the stadium?

It just looks so depressing

Spent a few days and the occasional night at “The Met”!! 🍺🍺🍺🍺👏👏

The Met was supposed to have the grandstand run along the 3rd base side but that was never done. Also you forgot to mention that the Met was the first stadium not to have posts running upwards in the seats.

I love your vids

How does one not mention the met center home of the north stars was built next to it and the mall of america where home plate is located on the amusement park

I’m surprised the Vikings survived 20 years in that stadium. Even I knew as a kid It was small and a terrible place to watch football especially the last years of the stadium when it was falling apart

The Met was magical, particularly Vikings games. But it was not for pansies.

I thought Metropolitan Stadium had been torn down, with part of the Mall of America on its' old site.

This guy don't know what he's saying..think it was easy to play in Minnesota when it got cold.Vikings had a huge advantage in the cold

Correct comment next below in that the Minneapolis Millers (Not Minnesota Millers) were the original baseball tenants at the brand new Metropolitan Stadium. The Millers were the Triple A farm team of the Boston Red Sox starting in late 1950's. Carl Yastrzemski played for the Millers in 1960. The Millers had been Triple A farm team of NY Giants (American Association) for decades before that time and had played at Nicollet Park in downtown Minneapolis (short right field wall and epicenter of George Floyd riots many decades later). Millers had been the Triple A team of Willie Mays, Orlando Cepeda and Bill White (both Cepeda and White played at Metropolitan Stadium, not Nicollet Park), Clint Hartung, Rance Pless, Ziggy Jazinski, Boyd Gail Harris, Ray Katt and other notable players during that time. Metropolitan Stadium opened in late March with an exhibition game between the Millers and the Milwaukee Braves, who were on their way north at the end of spring training. On that cold March day my 11 year old brother and I, a 13 year-old, braved the cold to see our first major league team in person, the very good Braves team. Carlos Paula of the Millers hit a home run that day -- very exciting event for a Millers fan like me. Metropolitan Stadium was really state of the art since it did not have the many structural sight impediments that the typical stadiums of the time (eg. Wrigley Field) had. It was a very good place to see baseball and football games. Your report was very good and your site is very enjoyable. Keep up the good work.

If you build it they will come

NFL teams playing there, both teams benches were on the same side of the field.

At least The Minnesota Vikings went on to 4 Super Bowls and passed the NFC Championsshup Games at that time. Unfortunately, they did not win The Super Bowl 4 times.

Symmetrical is not bland. It's orderly. Baseball in the 80s was great bc the focus in on the game and it was affordable. It's clear the nwo it's type owners are not interested in low prices tickets families can afford.

The Beatles gave a concert there in 1965.

Metropolitan stadium was lousy for football - sightlines were for baseball, capacity was under 50K, teams were on the same sideline among other problems. And for all those praising the weather - well they can sit in it.

This poor stadium.

Chamer of comberse?

Chit’s middle of nowhere

Before TV started paying huge amounts to the pro leagues, they had to make everything off ticket sales. That is why they built very cheap, multipurpose stadiums that look lousy to us today. In the 60's it was unclear whether many cities could really support a major league team. Plus, everyone would have to drive all the way out in the sticks in Bloomington to see the game. Would they? Nobody was willing to pay huge amounts for a stadium for an unproven thing. After TV sports audiences grew, and TV started paying astronomical sums to show the games, things changed a lot.

$92 million dollars?! There's movies with higher budgets than that lol

Hi

he means MPLS Millers

They needed a roof

It was a great baseball stadium. The sight lines were good. No pillars to obscure viewing. The creator of this video is just guessing with his conclusions

Minneapolis Millers, not Minnesota Millers.

The current A's wouldn't be able to fill this stadium up either.

Who builds a stadium in the middle of nowhere

It was an ugly stadium why put stadiums or arenas in the middle of nowhere is beyond me reminds me of the old cavaliers arena in richfield ohio

It was cheaper bc there was no fraud.

If you play in a dome on fake grass , you are weak

Your representation of ‘cookie cutter’ stadiums holding at least 65k capacity for attendance is off. Only the Vet in Philadelphia, at 65k, had football capacity over 60k.

Most annoying voice in the history of annoying voices. I’d rather hear- well, nothing…. Talk about trying wayyyyy tooo hard. A ten min video- and nothing about the current site? Somewhere a Hostess delivery truck is missing its driver- this guy.