Colt Stadium

Colt Stadium

The stadium in 1962.
Location	Houston, Texas
Coordinates	29°41′18″N 95°24′31″W / 29.68833°N 95.40861°W / 29.68833; -95.40861Coordinates: 29°41′18″N 95°24′31″W / 29.68833°N 95.40861°W / 29.68833; -95.40861
Owner	Harris County
Capacity	33,000
Field size	Left Field – 360 ft (110 m) Left-Center – 395 ft (120 m) Deep Left Center – 427 ft (130 m) Center – 420 ft (128 m) Deep Right Center – 427 ft (130 m) Right Center – 395 ft (120 m) Right Field – 360 ft (110 m)
Surface	Grass
Construction
Opened	1962
Closed	1964
Demolished	1970s
Construction cost	US$2 million ($15.8 million in 2016 dollars)
Tenants
Houston Colt .45s (MLB) (1962–1964)

Colt Stadium was a Major League baseball stadium that formerly stood in Houston, Texas. It was the temporary home of the Houston Colt .45s from 1962–1964 while the Astrodome was being built, just to the south of it.

After its use in Houston, it was dismantled and moved for use in two Mexican cities.

The stadium consisted of an uncovered grandstand stretching from foul pole to foul pole and small bleacher stands in right and left field. One baseball annual published just before the 1962 season referred to it as "a barn-like thing". It is best remembered for the horribly hot and humid weather (and attendant mosquito population) that had necessitated building the first domed stadium.

The stadium was abandoned when the Astrodome was completed. The Astros would occasionally use it for running and exercising to acclimatize players to warm weather before a road trip. However, the players had to be careful as rattlesnakes would often take up residence on the field. Monsanto engineers also used it as a testing ground for what would become known as Astroturf, inviting cars and horses to ride on the synthetic surface to gauge its durability. It sat abandoned for ten years, accumulating random odds and ends from nearby Astroworld and weathering in the blistering Texas sun.

The right field corner of the stadium was located in what is now the northwest corner of the Reliant Center. Much of the northern half of the stadium (center field, left field and the third base stands) is occupied by a power station, and home plate was approximately located where a light pole in the adjacent parking lot is.

By the mid-1970s, Colt Stadium had become a county tax liability, stripped of seats. It was sold to the owners of the Algodoneros del Unión Laguna, a Mexican League team, and was dismantled and shipped to Torreón, Coahuila, Mexico, for use as the team's home venue. Renamed Estadio Superior in a naming rights deal with a beer sponsor, Unión Laguna used the stadium between 1975 and 1981. It was located near the Estadio Corona soccer stadium on land used today for a soft drink company. The stadium was popularly known as the Estadio Mecano or Millón de Tuercas (Million Screws) due to its ability to be assembled and its resemblance to an Erector set.