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4/26 7:40 Tigers @ Twins


Tigeraholic1

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4 minutes ago, Tigeraholic1 said:

Never understood why they built an open stadium. Must have been a money thing.

As a rule, people in MN are not extravagant for sure, but also: It's hotter and rains less often in Minny in the Summer than in Det or Chicago. Plus if you live in Minneapolis the last thing you want to do after surviving another winter is go inside for your entertainment in the Summer.

Edited by gehringer_2
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4 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

As a rule, people in MN are not extravagant for sure, but also: It's hotter and rains less often in Minny in the Summer than in Det or Chicago. Plus if you live in Minneapolis the last thing you want to do after surviving another winter is go inside for your entertainment in the Summer.

Agreed, thats why I think it goes back to money. A retractable roof would be ideal.....

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3 minutes ago, Tigeraholic1 said:

Agreed, thats why I think it goes back to money. A retractable roof would be ideal.....

They've gotten pretty innovative with the retractable designs - I suppose that has lowered the cost. But there may not even be  room at the Target site for a roof that moves mostly to the side. It's a very constrained site. So the motivation to stay downtown have also have been a factor. The old Metrodome site is a good deal bigger, but unlike the Vikes, who could play at U Minn during construction, the Twins would have had nowhere to play if they had wanted to rebuild at the same site. To have come up with a bigger site in DT Minny probably would have ended up your typical big political fight. Target is a pretty nice venue though. We were only there a couple of seasons after it opened but to that point at least there didn't seem to be any feeling of buyers remorse about it.

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12 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

They've gotten pretty innovative with the retractable designs - I suppose that has lowered the cost. But there may not even be  room at the Target site for a roof that moves mostly to the side. It's a very constrained site. So the motivation to stay downtown have also have been a factor. The old Metrodome site is a good deal bigger, but unlike the Vikes, who could play at U Minn during construction, the Twins would have had nowhere to play if they had wanted to rebuild at the same site. To have come up with a bigger site in DT Minny probably would have ended up your typical big political fight. Target is a pretty nice venue though. We were only there a couple of seasons after it opened but to that point at least there didn't seem to be any feeling of buyers remorse about it.

I don't have any particular knowledge about the site other than the Northstar Commuter Rail Line that was developed with/underneath of the park, but looking at Google Earth, the site is pretty constrained. And even with retractable roof technology being as advanced as it is, the park is constrained on the right field side by  both a massive parking garage and I-394 with very little room on the left field side as well seems like it would have made it difficult to build with a retractable roof.

Edited by mtutiger
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4 minutes ago, mtutiger said:

I don't have any particular knowledge about the site other than the Northstar Commuter Rail Line that was developed with/underneath of the park, but looking at Google Earth, the site is pretty constrained. And even with retractable roof technology being as advanced as it is, the park is constrained on the right field side by  both a massive parking garage and I-394 with very little room on the left field side as well seems like it would have made it difficult to build with a retractable roof.

I remember when it opened they talked about how it had to fit in a city block. They mentioned how the stands almost went straight up to try and fit as many seats as possible.

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16 minutes ago, Tigeraholic1 said:

I remember when it opened they talked about how it had to fit in a city block. They mentioned how the stands almost went straight up to try and fit as many seats as possible.

That's definitely correct.... it's surrounded by all sides by an Interstate, two elevated flyover bridges, a commuter rail line (operating on tracks owned by BNSF Railway) and a light rail line. 

Won't go as far as calling it an engineering marvel or anything, but it looks like a challenging site to say the least.

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Apropos of nothing, from an engineering standpoint, American Family Field in Milwaukee is still the gold standard IMO.... the park has a lot of character, not a bad sight line in the house and getting into/out of the park is as easy as any park in Major League Baseball.

Of course, they built out where old County Stadium was and there's not nearly the challenge in terms of real estate that a more urban park the builders of a place like Comerica or Target Field had to contend with.

Edited by mtutiger
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