Tiger Stadium

Lore & Background

Tiger Stadium was declared a State of Michigan Historic Site in 1975 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. The last Tigers game at the stadium was held in September 1999. In the decade after the Tigers vacated the stadium, several rejected redevelopment and preservation efforts finally gave way to the stadium's demolition, which was completed in September 2009. The former playing field remained until 2018, when the site was redeveloped for youth sports as the Corner Ballpark.

In Their Own Story

October, 1978. The sky over Tiger Stadium is the color of a bruise, low clouds pressing down on the concrete bowl. Five thousand fans in the upper deck huddle in windbreakers, breath fogging in the cold. The Lions are down by four, fourth quarter, and the crowd has gone from roaring to a strange, held-breath silence. The ball is snapped. The running back takes the handoff, cuts left, and the concrete bleachers shudder under the stomp of feet. A roar builds — not a cheer, something deeper, something almost like the earth itself groaning. The play is incomplete. The silence returns, heavier than before. But no one leaves. No one in Tiger Stadium leaves. They pull their caps lower, share thermoses of coffee, and wait for the next snap, because that is what you do when you are a Lions fan in Detroit. You stay. You wait. You believe the next drive will be the one.

Reader's Guide

The stadium hosted two NFL Championship Games in 1953 and 1957. The football field ran mostly in the outfield from the right field line to left center field parallel with the third base line. The benches for both the Lions and their opponents were on the outfield side of the field. The Lions played their final game at Tiger Stadium on Thanksgiving Day, November 28, 1974, against the Denver Broncos.

Did You Know?

• When Tiger Stadium closed in 1999, Fenway Park was the older stadium still in use; the two parks opened the same year in 1912, but Fenway remained active.
• A 125-foot tall flagpole stood in fair play at Tiger Stadium, to the left of dead center field.
• The stadium's right field upper deck overhung the field by 10 feet, occasionally turning high fly balls into home runs.
• Lights were not installed at Tiger Stadium until 1948 due to owner Walter Briggs's dislike of night baseball.