Today's debates about new sports stadiums are fraught with real concerns that pro teams might leave town. In 1896, the Minneapolis Millers had already left town -- and there was a scramble to get them a new ballpark before they got back.

That May, the Millers were forced to give up their tiny block-square field at 6th Street and 1st Avenue N., almost a century before Target Center went up there. Fortunately, the team headed off on a long road trip, and there was no air travel in those days. The Minneapolis Baseball Association quickly came up with two possible locations for a ballpark: on Kenwood Avenue near where the Hennepin-Lyndale bottleneck is now and on Lake Street and Nicollet Avenue S.

The May 29, 1896, Minneapolis Journal reported that the Lake Street location was the surprise choice. It was roomy -- 450 by 450 feet -- and nicely accessible by streetcar. The baseball association signed a five-year lease and budgeted $4,000 to build a grandstand and bleachers to seat 4,000 fans.

"In general arrangement and fixtures the new field and grandstand will be as complete and modern as any in the country," the Journal story said. What's more, it reported, "... if the university lads do not get their enclosed athletic field by next fall they will have a full-sized grounds for their football games."

The new field was ready for the Millers' return on June 19 (sports historian Stew Thornley has noted that they beat the Milwaukee Brewers that day), and it was named Nicollet Park a year later. The team played there for 60 years, until the end of the 1955 season. Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington was opened in 1956 in anticipation of the major league Twins, who arrived in 1961.

A plaque outside the Wells Fargo Bank at 31st Street and Nicollet marks the site of the main entrance of Nicollet Park.

DICK PARKER

TO LEARN MORE

Book: "On to Nicollet: The Glory and Fame of the Minneapolis Millers," by Stew Thornley; Nodin Press, 1988

Online: milkeespress.com/threestadiums.html

stewthornley.net/nicollet_park.html

www.startribune.com/yesterday