(Photo: Saintsbaseball.com)
The Brewers will visit Target Field in Minneapolis on the weekend of June 5-7 this season, as Milwaukee’s more traditional home-and-home weekend series matchups with the Twins return.
2015 features an opportunity to not only catch Brewers baseball in Minneapolis during a weekend series but baseball in St. Paul as well in the form of the St. Paul Saints and their new digs.
The 2014 Brewers season included a strange series of four straight games against the Twins with two each at Miller Park and Target Field, and the dates were scheduled during the week, nixing plans of many fans who would’ve liked to partake had convenience reigned.
Apparently MLB heard the complaints of fans of the interleague “regional rivalries.”
In any case, if you haven’t been to Target Field, you owe it to yourself to check it out. Plus, it’s nearly guaranteed to be nice in Minnesota by June.
Target Field’s not the No. 1 ballpark in baseball, as many Twins fans believe, but it is a gem, particularly with its downtown skyline views and central location accessible by light rail. Aside from Chicago, Minneapolis is one of the closer destinations for road-tripping Brewers fans, and the Milwaukee contingent is well represented at these contests in the Twin Cities.
But a big-time potential bonus awaits baseball fans who travel to the Twin Cities for this year’s matchup with the Twins: A brand new ballpark in downtown St. Paul, about 10 miles east of downtown Minneapolis. CHS Field will be the new home of the American Association St. Paul Saints, and it opens in May. Great timing places the Brewers in town on the same weekend the Saints will play a home series against the Sioux Falls Canaries.
I’ve written about the fun-loving Saints franchise before, here and here. The team is owned by Bill Murray and its former home, Midway Stadium, was a dynamic and very affordable place to hang out and check out a game, even though the infrastructure was a bit rotten. I’ve received bobblehead statues of Bud Selig and Count Chocula there, to give an idea of the franchise’s wacky vibe.
The $62 million CHS Field seats over 7,000, a boost of over 1,000 from Midway Stadium and it’s complete with modern luxuries including much, much better bathroom facilities. Midway Stadium was built on a landfill in an industrial area. It hosted many concerts over the years (REM, the Replacements, Bob Dylan), but was antiquated by the late 1990s. Midway will be bulldozed for new commercial development.
Fans can get an idea of CHS Field in the following video. The stadium is located in St. Paul’s Lowertown area. St. Paul is served by Green Line light rail that connects it with Minneapolis and the Blue Line, which runs out to the Mall of America and the airport.
Single-game tickets for the Saints go on sale at 10AM on Saturday, March 21. For fans planning on hitting up CHS Field during their visit to the Twin Cities to see the Brewers at Target Field, or any other date during the season, advanced purchases are recommended because the ballpark is new and will attract many visitors. Tickets can be purchased online, by phone, or in person.
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