| Built
in 1948 and known as Bears Stadium for the first twenty
years of its existence, Denver's Mile High Stadium was
originally built by Bob Howsam with minor league
baseball in mind. Denver's Bears (1948-84) and
Zephyrs (1985-92) brought AAA baseball to town, but by
the late 1950's Howsam wanted more. In an effort
to gain a franchise in Branch Rickey's aborted
Continental League, the stadium underwent its first
expansion. When the CL concept didn't take off,
Howsam suddenly found himself with a major league level
stadium - but not a major league level team to fill
it. Fortunately his timing couldn't have been
better. The
American Football League was forming, and Howsam and his
family was awarded the Denver franchise, which became
the Broncos. While Howsam would divest himself of
his sports-related properties the following year, he had
lit Denver's major league fuse. By the 1970's Mile
High Stadium was owned by the City of Denver and had a
capacity of nearly 80,000 - and had been converted into
a unique multi-purpose stadium capable of hosting both
baseball and football without significantly compromising
seating for either sport.
In 1980's the Denver Gold were among the USFL's early
success stories in terms of attendance, while in the
1990's Howsam's dream came true as the Colorado Rockies
expansion team began its history with two years at Mile
High before moving into its own facility. By 1999
however Mile High was beginning to show signs of age,
and a new, replacement facility was built next
door. In January 2002, Mile High was demolished to
accommodate parking for the new stadium.
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MILE
HIGH STADIUM |
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Denver,
Colorado |
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