Midway Stadium
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| Former names | Municipal Stadium (1982–1993) |
|---|---|
| Location | 1771 Energy Park Drive St. Paul, Minnesota 55108 |
| Owner | City of St. Paul |
| Operator | St. Paul Parks and Recreation |
| Capacity | 2,100 (1982–1993) 5,000 (1993–1995) 6,069 (1995–2014) |
| Field size | Left Field: 320 ft (98 m) Center Field: 400 ft (120 m) Right Field: 320 ft (98 m) |
| Construction | |
| Opened | September 1982 |
| Demolished | June 2015 |
| Construction cost | $3 million USD |
| Tenants | |
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Hamline University (MIAC) (1982–2014) St. Paul Saints (NoL/AA) (1993–2014) |
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Midway Stadium is the name of two different minor league baseball parks in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States, both now demolished. The name derived from the location of the stadium in St. Paul's Midway area, so named because it's roughly halfway between the downtowns of Minneapolis and Saint Paul.
The first Midway Stadium was the home of the St. Paul Saints of the American Association from 1957–1960. It was located at 1000 North Snelling Avenue, on the east side of that street. It was built with just a small uncovered and presumably expandable grandstand. It was intended to compete with Metropolitan Stadium for attracting a major league baseball team, but the already-larger capacity of "The Met" doomed Midway Stadium. It was abandoned for professional baseball once the Twins arrived in 1961 and displaced both the Saints and the Minneapolis Millers. It was used for minor events and as a Minnesota Vikings practice field for the next 20 years, and finally demolished in 1981 to make way for the Energy Park. That development, with all new streets and various buildings, rubbed out any trace of the ballpark's existence.
The second Midway Stadium was built in 1982 at roughly half the size of its namesake. It was located at 1771 Energy Park Drive. That's on the north side of that road, just west of Snelling, complemented by the Burlington Northern tracks to the north just beyond left field. Thus it was about a mile west of the first Midway Stadium site. The ballpark started out in life as Municipal Stadium. It was home of Hamline University's baseball team. Despite its baseball configurations, some small private schools in St. Paul played football games at Midway in the fall. When Mike Veeck and Bill Murray revived the Saints and also the independent Northern League in 1993, they set up shop there, at the soon-rechristened Midway Stadium. Midway Stadium was also used, occasionally, for rock concerts and other events. In April 2014 it was announced that pioneering alternative rock band The Replacements would hold a hometown reunion concert at the venue on September 13, 2014.
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