Veterans Stadium

Philadelphia Veterans Stadium was located at the northeast corner of Broad Street and Pattison Avenue in Philadelphia. It housed the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League from 1971 through 2002 and Major League Baseball's Philadelphia Phillies from 1971 through 2003. The listed capacity for baseball in 1971 was 56,371 and for football was listed with a 62,000 seat capacity.

Stadium History

Named by Philadelphia's City Council, for the veterans of all wars in 1968, and originally scheduled to open in 1970 but completed one year late due to a combination of bad weather and cost overruns, Veterans Stadium was a complicated structure, its seating layered in seven separate levels: The lowest, or "100" level, extended only part way around the structure, between roughly the 25-yard lines for football games and near the two dugouts for baseball; the "200" level comprised field-level boxes, and the "300" level housed what were labelled "Terrace Boxes;" these three levels collectively made up the "Lower Stands." The "400" level was reserved for the press and dignitaries; the upper level began with "500" level (or "Loge Boxes"), the "600" level (Upper reserved, or individual seats), and finally, the "700" level (General Admission for baseball), where some of the most passionate sports fans on the East Coast could be found. Originally, the seats were in shades of borwn, terra cotta, orange and yellow, to look like an autumn day, but in 1995 and 1996, blue seats replaced the fall-hued ones.

Related Topics:
1970 - East Coast

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The Vet had been known for providing both the Eagles and the Phillies with great home-field advantage. In particular, the acoustics greatly enhanced the crowd noise on the field, making it difficult for opponents to focus on the task at hand. The field's surface, originally composed of AstroTurf (usually rated to be the "hardest" of all synthetic playing surfaces), was switched to the somewhat softer NexTurf in 2001.

Related Topics:
AstroTurf - 2001

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The most notable event in the Vet's history was Game 6 of the 1980 World Series. In that game, the Phillies clinched their lone world championship with a victory over the Kansas City Royals in front of 65,838 fans. The most notable football game ever played there took place less than three months later, and was the Eagles' 20-7 victory over the hated Dallas Cowboys in the 1980 NFC Championship Game, actually played on January 11, 1981 in front of 71,250 fans. This game has sometimes been referred to as the "Blue Jersey Bowl" because the Eagles chose to wear their white jerseys in the game, so as to force the Cowboys to don their blue jerseys, which they always seek to evade wearing. (In the NFL the home team has the choice of which jerseys to wear, usually wearing their more colorful jerseys--unless they are playing in hot weather such as in pre-season games or in September, in which case the white jerseys are cooler, reflecting heat--and making the road team wear their colored jerseys, but the Cowboys have always worn their white jerseys at home as well as usually on the road.} The last football game played at the Vet was the Eagles' loss to Tampa Bay in the NFC Championship game in 2003, as the team moved into Lincoln Financial Field that autumn. The Vet also hosted the annual Army-Navy football game 17 times, first in 1980 and last in 2001. It was during the 1998 Army-Navy game that a rail collasped and eight people were injured. That led to the call for new stadiums for football and baseball for the main stadium tennants.

Related Topics:
1980 - World Series - Kansas City Royals - Dallas Cowboys - January 11 - 1981 - 2003 - Lincoln Financial Field - Army-Navy - Football - 2001

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