Mile High Stadium
The Mile High Stadium, also known by his previous name, Bears Stadium, was a multi-purpose facility for sporting events located in the city of Denver, Colorado. The stadium was built mainly as an outdoor venue, and its construction dates back to 1948. The venue was the home to the Denver Bears, a local baseball team, which was actually a member of the Western League at the time. This stadium was originally conceived to be a baseball venue specifically. However, ti actually expanded and was changed in order to be able to also accommodate football. Since the renovation, the venue also became the home of the Denver Broncos, a professional football team. At the time, Denver did not have any MLB team, so this stadium was actually built with the goal and hope of attracting a major league baseball team to the city.
While the stadium as primarily meant to be a baseball venue, it actually became a lot more popular as a place where to watch professional football games, since the Broncos were actually doing quite well. The team called the stadium home from about 1960, up until 2000. The Bears, the team which actually gave the stadium its original name, actually renamed to the Zephyrs, and continued to play at the Mile High Stadium up until the year 1992. Eventually, they relocated to the city of New Orleans, starting a new chapter. While many fans were upset that their historic baseball team led the city, many were actually quite happy to realize that the city of Denver would finally become the home to a major league team, the Colorado Rockies. The first seasons of the Rockies were quite glorious, so much so that the stadium began setting various MLB attendance records.
In addition to various games that will always be imprinted in football and baseball history, Mile High Stadium was also the venue where some incredible shows took place. In 1969, the venue was home to the Denver Pop Festival, which showcases some of the best acts of the sixties. The event is sometimes referred to as a mini-woodstock, although the scale was relatively smaller compared to the historic concert in upstate New York. Having said that, the city actually made many areas available for camping, but there were some tensions with the police, as many attendees tried to climb over the fences and sneak into the festival without paying. The police responded with tear gas, which had the adverse effect of actually affecting paying attendees as well. Among other acts, the festival remains quite iconic due to the performance by Jimi Hendrix and The Experience. This would be the very last show the Experience would ever perform as a trio, as Hendrix would eventually change his line up. In addition to that, many other acts performed at the Mile High Stadium, including The Jacksons, as well as Van Halen, Metallica, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Guns’N’Roses, only to mention but a few. The stadium has appeared on many movies and television productions as well. Most notably, director Michael Moore actually featured the stadium in his award-winning documentary, “Bowling for Columbine,” as he was interviewing Marilyn Manson for a segment in the documentary - the artist was blamed by many people for being the cause of the Columbine shootings, and he talked about how his music is not an instigation to violence, but rather a matter of free artistic expression. In addition to that, the stadium was featured in the background of many other productions throughout the years!