Denver, Colorado was granted a National League franchise in 1991, and the expansion Rockies began play in 1993 at the home of the NFL’s Denver Broncos, Mile High Stadium, on the outskirts of downtown. Mile High was actually originally built (as Bears Stadium) for Baseball in 1948 for the AAA Denver Bears but had long since been more associated with American Football. Still, the Bears (who changed their name to Zephyrs in 1985) continued to call the stadium home until the Rockies arrived.
In expanding the stadium in the late 1970’s to a capacity of over 75,000, Mile High’s east grandstand was ingeniously built on hydraulic tracks to allow a full baseball diamond (check out further information about the design and its engineer here) for the Bears. In 1993, the new Rockies took full advantage of Mile High’s capacity and the thirst for major league baseball in their first season, smashing the single-season attendance record with 4,483,350 fans. Like, really smashed it – the previous record was 4,028,318, set by the Toronto Blue Jays in 1992 (the World Champion Jays would go on to pass that mark in 1993 as well, with 4,057,947).
Coors Field home plate entrance on Blake Street and 20th Avenue, Denver.
As the Rockies were packing Mile High Stadium, their permanent home Coors Field was being built right in downtown Denver at Blake Street and 20th Street (LoDo – Lower Downtown – area). Being built at the start of the Retro-classic wave, Coors was meant to have a capacity of under 44,000. But the success at Mile High (average attendances of 56,751 in 1993 and 57,570 in a strike-shortened 1994) necessitated revisions to the right field stand designs and a revised capacity of 50,200.
The sparkling new park opened April 26, 1995 with the Rockies hosting the New York Mets. They would average 47,084 fans in the inaugural season at Coors, again leading the majors in attendance (as they would annually through 1999) en route to their first postseason appearance.
Looking North-West towards Boulder and the Rocky Mountains
Coors Field was the first of a new generation of stadiums in Denver, with the NHL Avalanche and NBA Nuggets opening Pepsi Center in 1999 and the Broncos moving into Invesco Field at Mile High in 2001. These facilities were built near their predecessors outside downtown.
My Coors visit was during the Rockies’ worse season to-date, on Memorial Day 2012 as they laboured to a 64-98 record. Still the 17-year old ballpark looked as good as new with its redbrick exterior and clean, simple interior. The Rockies beat the lowly Astros in the 10th inning on a Dexter Fowler triple and fireworks followed. Our seats were perfectly chosen along the first baseline, providing a great view of the Rocky Mountains and the sunset. On the second level, they were also not too far from the action.
Scoreboard and the “Rockpile” bleachers.
The accessible and cool location also came as advertised, right off the interstate near Union Station and many microbrews. While the higher-than-planned capacity was still low by MLB standards for 1995, by 2015, after most teams have moved into new ballparks, it is the second highest in MLB (behind only Los Angeles’ Dodger Stadium). Yet Coors does not feel too big (provided, I would think, that there is a good crowd). Hopefully Colorado can finally turn things around soon and Coors will be full and, er, rocking again.
stadium nerd 
