Minnesota’s Greatest Sporting Venue Opened On This Day In 1982

On April 6th, 1982 the Minnesota Twins played their first regular season game against the Mariners at the Metrodome in Minneapolis. Today, the Twins will open their 16th (!) season at Target Field, where the temperature will struggle to reach 40 degrees under cloudy skies.

Target Field is an awesome venue with perfect sightlines, a great location and wonderful amenities. However, I still miss the Metrodome. Was there no way to keep both? How cool would it be to have an indoor stadium for part of the season and an outdoor stadium for the nicer days? Ok, I have just described a retractable roof... never mind.

I would imagine most of my love for the Dome is simply based in nostalgia. After all, it opened the year I was born and hosted many of my favorite team’s best moments throughout my childhood and beyond.

But there are many other things I miss about the place. For starters, the ticket prices were so perfectly cheap, both through the box office and the ‘brokers’ outside the stadium. One year in the late 2000’s, I was able to buy a full season ticket for upper general admission for $99! With a seat to sit in and everything!

There were relatively few price points to deal with and the most expensive lower level tickets were right around $50. Have you seen what it costs to sit in the Legend’s Club at Target Field?!

It’s super nice to sit outside on a May night at Target Field to check out a game. It can be a bit miserable in April in the cold, July in the sweltering heat or September when it goes back to cold. At the Dome? Every game was 70 degrees, the perfect weather night in and night out.

No phantom rain delays or rainouts. No checking the weather for two weeks leading up to the game to see if the drive from outstate would even be worth it. Plus, I am a hoodie and jeans guy pretty much every day, so the Dome’s climate suited me perfectly.

For me, the biggest thing I miss about the Dome was the focus on the game itself, as opposed to all the bells and whistles that come with the “Target Field Experience.” If the Twins didn’t put a winning team on the field, people wouldn’t show up. Now, the Twins are ‘your ticket to summer,’ just another overpriced bar in downtown Minneapolis.

People didn’t show up at the Dome to take selfies and check in on social media, they went to actually watch the baseball game and interact with the things going on down on the field.

The home field advantage at the Dome was unparalleled, with 50,000+ baseball fans bellowing in an echo chamber for three hours. Even when it was empty it was hard on opponents. I remember Johnny Damon telling Baseball Weekly that the Dome was the hardest stadium to play in because, and I am paraphrasing, it's so empty that you can hear every college kids' insults throughout the game.

Try as it may, Target Field will never, ever provide the same advantage.

I didn’t love everything about the Metrodome. Standing shoulder-to-shoulder at a trough was never my thing, the air felt really stale most of the time, and I definitely would have preferred to be outside on one of those all-too-rare perfect Minnesota nights.

With that being said, I will always have a place in my heart for my beloved Metrodome. May she rest in peace.