Did You Know The Mall Of America Holds Fascinating Minnesota History?

You know, aside from the MOA being one of the biggest malls in the nation, and one of the only malls with a theme park in the middle, it also holds some fun and rich Minnesota history.

You may know what I am talking about, but if you don’t I hope some of this sparks some memory or interest for you.

Have you ever been on your way or in line for the Rock Bottom Plunge Ride and happened to notice something on the ground?

Okay, you probably now know what I am talking about! But have you ever noticed how there is a bronzed baseball Homeplate and thought, why?

Well, that is there because right where Nickelodeon Universe is there used to be a whole baseball stadium.

Yes, that’s right. What used to be a cornfield was then turned into a baseball stadium in Bloomington in 1955.

This stadium was built because a group of men called the ‘Minneapolis Minute Men’ raised the required $4.5 million to build it and later that year the chamber of commerce bought the 164 acres of land so they could break ground for the new stadium.

This stadium was called the Metropolitan Stadium, or “The Met.”

The stadium was able to hold 30,000 people and had parking for 15,000 cars! Woah! (for reference that’s about 10,000 more people than the Xcel Energy Center can hold)

However, this stadium was missing one very important piece… A TEAM!

This whole stadium was actually built in the hope that it would attract a baseball team to the state. It wasn’t until 1961 that MLB finally put a team in Minnesota.

In April of 1961, The Minnesota Twins played for the first time as a Minnesota team in the stadium, but unfortunately, they lost to the Washington Senators in front of about 25,000 fans.

The Met would continue to host many things including the 1965 MLB All-Star Game, many games for the Vikings, the world series, and even The Beatles!

While in the 70s the Vikings weren’t going to play games in The Met (because the NFL thought stadiums with less than 50,000 seats were too small) there would still be Twins games…

But what happened to The Met, why is there a mall standing in its place? Well, the point of it being an architectural disaster came into major play.

With the stadium starting to deteriorate there were many complaints from players and most likely fans. So the Metrodome was built and completed in 1982 (RIP) and the Vikings and the Twins held their last seasons at The Met in 1981.

The last game at The Met ended up having THREE TIMES the amount of security! However many fans still managed to rip the stadium apart for their own souvenirs.

What was left of The Met sat for 3 years when finally, the rest was demolished so they could make way for what would be the nation’s largest mall… which still stands today as the MOA.

Now all that’s left of the Met is a bronzed Homeplate marking where it used to be in the stadium, and a red stadium seat on the opposite side by part of the Log Chute, marking the longest homerun in stadium history! This homerun was made by Harmon Killebrew and was 520 feet long.

So the next time you find yourself walking through Nickelodeon Universe, waiting in line for Rock Bottom Plunge, on the Log Chute, or just in the mall in general, your mind will think back to what used to be here and all the history that is left for us to remember.

All information is credited to @tyler.m.webb on TikTok.