Coors Field is a

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding ...

stadium A stadium ( : stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand o ...

in downtown

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the United ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

. It is the home field of

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL) ...

Colorado Rockies The Colorado Rockies are an American professional baseball team based in Denver. The Rockies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. The team plays its home baseball games at Coors Fi ...

. Opened in

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake strike ...

, the park is located in Denver's Lower Downtown neighborhood, two blocks from

Union Station A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...

. The stadium has a capacity of 50,144 people for baseball. As an

expansion team An expansion team is a new team in a sports league, usually from a city that has not hosted a team in that league before, formed with the intention of satisfying the demand for a local team from a population in a new area. Sporting leagues also ...

that began play in 1993, the Rockies spent their first two seasons at

Mile High Stadium Mile High Stadium (originally Bears Stadium until 1968) was an outdoor multi-purpose stadium located in Denver, Colorado from 1948 to 2001. The stadium was built in 1948 to accommodate the Denver Bears baseball team, which was a member of th ...

. During that time, Coors Field was constructed for a cost of $300 million. It includes 63 luxury suites and 4,526 club seats. Coors Field has earned a reputation as a hitter's park, due to the effect of Denver's high

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § ...

and

semi-arid climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi- ...

on the distances of batted balls. To combat this, the

outfield The outfield, in cricket, baseball and softball is the area of the field of play further from the batsman or batter than the infield. In association football, the outfield players are positioned outside the goal area. In cricket, baseball a ...

fences were positioned further away from home plate and baseballs used in the park have been pre-stored in

humidor A humidor is a humidity-controlled box or room used primarily for storing cigars, cigarettes, cannabis, or pipe tobacco. Either too much or too little humidity can be harmful to tobacco products; a humidor's primary function is to maintain a s ...

s. Coors Field has hosted the

1998 MLB All-Star Game The 1998 Major League Baseball All-Star Game was the 69th playing of the midsummer classic between the all-stars of the American League (AL) and National League (NL), the two leagues comprising Major League Baseball. The game was held on July 7 ...

and the

2021 MLB All-Star Game The 2021 Major League Baseball All-Star Game was the 91st Major League Baseball All-Star Game. The game was hosted by the Colorado Rockies and played at Coors Field on July 13, with the American League (AL) defeating the National League (NL) 5– ...

. Coors has also hosted an outdoor hockey game from the

2016 NHL Stadium Series The 2016 NHL Stadium Series (branded as the 2016 Coors Light NHL Stadium Series for sponsorship reasons) was a series of two List of outdoor ice hockey games, outdoor regular season National Hockey League (NHL) games played during the 2015–16 N ...

, along with numerous concerts. In 2017, a consultant determined that Coors Field would require $200 million in capital improvements in the 2020s. To fund those improvements, the Rockies agreed to a long-term lease to develop club-owned nearby land.

Construction

Coors Field was the first new

added in a six-year period in which Denver's sports venues were upgraded, along with

Ball Arena Ball Arena (formerly known as Pepsi Center) is a multi-purpose indoor arena located in Denver, Colorado. It is situated at Speer Boulevard, a main thoroughfare in downtown Denver, and is served by two nearby exits off Interstate 25. A light ...

and Empower Field at Mile High (originally sponsored by INVESCO). It was also the first baseball-only park in the National League since

Dodger Stadium Dodger Stadium is a baseball stadium in the Elysian Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. It is the home stadium of Major League Baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers. Opened in 1962, it was constructed in less than three years at a cost of ...

was built in

1962 Events January * January 1 – Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand. * January 3 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro for preaching communism. * January 8 – Harmelen train disaster: 93 die in the wo ...

. As with the other new venues, Coors Field was constructed with accessibility in mind. It sits near

Interstate 25 Interstate 25 (I-25) is a major Interstate Highway in the western United States. It is primarily a north–south highway, serving as the main route through New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming. I-25 stretches from I-10 at Las Cruces, New Mex ...

and has direct access to the 20th Street and Park Avenue exits. Nearby Union Station also provides light rail and commuter rail access. Coors Field was originally planned to be somewhat smaller, seating only 43,800. However, after the Rockies drew almost 4.5 million people in their first season at

– the most in baseball history – the plans were altered during construction, and new seats in the right field upper deck were added. The center field bleacher section is named "The Rockpile". During the 1993 and 1994 seasons when the team played at

, which was a hybrid football/baseball venue, the Rockpile was located next to the south stands, which were in dead center field and very distant from home plate. The same design was incorporated into Coors Field, and is located in deep center field up high. The original Rockpile seats cost a dollar each. During construction, workers discovered a number of dinosaur fossils throughout the grounds. Rumors circulated that these fossils included a

triceratops ''Triceratops'' ( ; ) is a genus of herbivorous chasmosaurine ceratopsid dinosaur that first appeared during the late Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous period, about 68 million years ago in what is now North America. It is ...

skull. In reality, the fossil fragments discovered were quite small, and are now housed at the Museum of Science and Nature. Because of these discoveries, "Jurassic Park" was one of the first names to be considered for the stadium. This later led to the selection of a triceratops as the Rockies' mascot, Dinger. Coors Brewing purchased

naming rights Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization whereby a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event, typically for a defined period of t ...

to the stadium as part of their $30 million investment in the Rockies in 1991. A 2017 lease agreement that Rockies club ownership signed with the stadium district ensured that the name would remain at least through 2047.

Features

While most of the seats in Coors Field are dark green, the seats in the 20th row of the upper deck are purple to mark the

of one

mile The mile, sometimes the international mile or statute mile to distinguish it from other miles, is a British imperial unit and United States customary unit of distance; both are based on the older English unit of length equal to 5,280 Engli ...

(5280 ft; 1,609 m) above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardise ...

The Blue Moon Brewery at The Sandlot is a

microbrewery Craft beer is a beer that has been made by craft breweries. They produce smaller amounts of beer, typically less than large breweries, and are often independently owned. Such breweries are generally perceived and marketed as having an emphasis o ...

/ restaurant that is behind the right-field stands, with an entrance from Coors Field, and from Blake Street. The brewery is operated by the

Coors Brewing Company The Coors Brewing Company started as an American brewery and beer company in Golden, Colorado. In 2005, Adolph Coors Company, the holding company that owned Coors Brewing, merged with Molson, Inc. to become Molson Coors. The first Coors brew ...

, and experiments with craft beers on a small scale. The Brewery has won multiple awards at the

Great American Beer Festival The Great American Beer Festival (GABF) is an annual beer festival hosted by the Brewers Association, held in Denver, Colorado. Typically held in late September or early October, the event is currently held at Denver's Colorado Convention Cent ...

in various categories. The popular Blue Moon, a Belgian-Style Wheat beer was invented here, and is now mass-produced by Coors. The restaurant is housed in a building that is attached to the stadium. Coors Field has an extensive selection of food items. Selections include Rockie dogs, Denver dogs, vegetarian dogs and burgers, and all of the usual ball park items. Behind the center field wall is a landscape decoration that reflects the typical environment of the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico in ...

. This landscape area consists of a waterfall, fountains, and pine trees. After a Rockies home run or win, the fountains shoot high into the air. The park has two large

light emitting diode A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. The color of the light ( ...

(LED) video displays and one ribbon display in the outfield from Daktronics. The top display, underneath the "Rockies" logo, measures . The second display measure and is used to give lineups and statistics and as a scoreboard. The field also contains several Daktronics ribbon displays, totaling approximately in length. After the close of the 2013 season, renovations began on the right field portion of the upper deck, converted into an outdoor party deck for 2014.

Reputation as a home run-friendly park

At above sea level, Coors Field is by far the highest park in the majors. The next-highest, Chase Field in Phoenix, stands at . Designers knew that the stadium would give up a lot of home runs, as the lower air density at such a high

would result in balls traveling farther than in other parks. To compensate for this, the outfield fences were placed at an unusually far distance from home plate, thus creating the largest outfield in Major League Baseball. In spite of the pushed-back fences, for many years Coors Field not only gave up the most home runs in baseball, but due to the resultant large field area, the most doubles and

triples TripleS (stylized as tripleS; Help:IPA/English, /ˈtɹɪpəl:ɛs/; ) is a South Korean girl group formed by MODHAUS. They aim to be the world's first decentralized K-pop idol group. The members will rotate between the group, sub-unit, and solo ac ...

as well. In its first decade, the above-average number of home runs earned Coors Field a reputation as the most hitter-friendly park in Major League Baseball, earning the critical nicknames "Coors Canaveral" (a reference to Cape Canaveral, from where

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedi ...

launches spacecraft) and " Williamsport" (referring to the site of the

Little League World Series The Little League World Series is an annual baseball tournament for children—typically boys—aged 10 to 12 years old, held in the Eastern United States. Originally called the National Little League Tournament, it was later renamed for the ...

, which has been traditionally dominated by batters). Prior to the 2002 baseball season, studies determined that ''dry'' air rather than ''thin'' air had a greater contribution to the increased frequency of home runs. It was found that baseballs stored in damper air are softer and therefore less elastic to the impact of the bat. To address this problem, a secure room-sized

was installed to have a damper place to store the baseballs prior to games. Since its introduction, the number of home runs at Coors Field has decreased and is now nearly the same as other parks. Regardless of ball humidity, elevation is still a factor in games at Coors Field. The ball does slip more easily through the thin air allowing for longer hits. In addition, the

curveball In baseball and softball, the curveball is a type of pitch thrown with a characteristic grip and hand movement that imparts forward spin to the ball, causing it to dive as it approaches the plate. Varieties of curveball include the 12–6 curv ...

tends to curve less with the thin air than at sea level leading to fewer strikeouts and fewer effective pitches for pitchers to work with. Coors Field twice broke the major league record for home runs hit in a ballpark in one season. The previous record, 248, had been set at the Angels' original home of

Wrigley Field Wrigley Field is a Major League Baseball (MLB) stadium on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. It is the home of the Chicago Cubs, one of the city's two MLB franchises. It first opened in 1914 as Weeghman Park for Charles Weeghman's Chicago W ...

in Los Angeles in 1961, its only year for major league ball. In Coors Field's first year, the home run total fell just 7 short of that mark, despite losing 9 games from the home schedule (or 1/9 of the normal 81) due to the strike that had continued from 1994. The next season, 1996, with a full schedule finally, 271 home runs were hit at Coors Field. In 1999, the current major league record was set at 303. The annual home run figure dropped noticeably in 2002, and has dropped below 200 starting in 2005. Although the number of home runs hit per season at Coors Field is decreasing, Coors Field still remains the most hitter friendly ballpark in the Major Leagues by a wide margin. From 2012 to 2015, the Colorado Rockies led the league in runs scored in home games, while being last in the league for runs scored in away games. This demonstrates the extreme benefit that Coors Field's low air density provides to hitters. Many, however, feel that Coors Field has hurt the Rockies' success. One concern over the years has been poor adjustment when playing road games at lower altitudes. The Rockies score an average of just 3.9 runs per road game, the lowest among all teams. This has had a detrimental effect on Colorado's all-time road record, which sits at 888-1352, or 39.6%, the worst in the majors by a large margin. Additionally, many feel that pitcher development on the Rockies has suffered because of how much of an advantage opposing hitters have at Coors Field. Rockies pitchers are more likely to finish with an ERA of at least 4, if not higher, and only Ubaldo Jiménez and Jhoulys Chacín maintained sub-4 ERAs during their Rockies tenure (3.66 and 3.84 respectively). This can hurt the trade value and careers of pitchers. Some have claimed that starting pitchers such as Kyle Freeland,

Jon Gray Jonathan Charles Gray (born November 5, 1991) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Texas Rangers of Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously played for the Colorado Rockies. Gray played college baseball for Eastern Oklahoma ...

, and Germán Márquez would have developed better if they didn't play for Colorado. Additionally, notable relief pitchers such as Jake McGee and Wade Davis are cited to have suffered significant drop-offs due to playing at higher altitudes. Compounded with poor coaching and management decisions, Colorado has gained a bad reputation among the pitching community, and some pitchers have cited their reluctance to play for the Rockies. Coors Field Pano

Notable events

MLB

On September 17, 1996, Hideo Nomo of the

Los Angeles Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Established in 1883 in the city of Brookly ...

threw the first of his two career

no-hit In baseball, a no-hitter is a game in which a team was not able to record a hit. Major League Baseball (MLB) officially defines a no-hitter as a completed game in which a team that batted in at least nine innings recorded no hits. A pitche ...

games as the Dodgers won 9–0. Nomo's first no-hitter at Coors Field is of special note due to the park's overwhelming hitter-friendly reputation (before the usage of the humidors, even), it being the only one thrown there through the 2020 season, as well as Nomo pitching for the visiting team; while still a fairly new park at the time, the Rockies started out in the similarly elevated

and would naturally be more accustomed to Coors Field's nuances such as the larger fielding area as it is their home field. The

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

and

2021 Major League Baseball All-Star Game The 2021 Major League Baseball All-Star Game was the 91st Major League Baseball All-Star Game. The game was hosted by the Colorado Rockies and played at Coors Field on July 13, with the American League (AL) defeating the National League (NL) 5– ...

s took place in Coors Field. In 2011, a man fell to his death when he was attempting to slide down a stair railing during the 7th inning of a Rockies- Diamondbacks game. On April 23, 2013, Rockies and Braves played in the coldest game since MLB began tracking game time temperature in 1991, at . There have been ten 1–0 games in Coors Field history, through the 2018 season. The first 1–0 game at Coors Field was on July 9, 2005, meaning all ten games have occurred since Major League Baseball allowed the Rockies to start using a

on May 15, 2002: Coors Field Panorama

*July 9, 2005, Rockies beat the

San Diego Padres The San Diego Padres are an American professional baseball team based in San Diego. The Padres compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1969, the club has won two NL penna ...

*April 16, 2006,

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. Since 2004, the team's home stadium has been Citize ...

beat the Rockies *July 25, 2006, St. Louis Cardinals beat the Rockies *August 1, 2006,

Milwaukee Brewers The Milwaukee Brewers are an American professional baseball team based in Milwaukee. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. The Brewers are named for the city's association wi ...

beat the Rockies *June 11, 2008, Rockies beat the

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Y ...

*September 14, 2008, Rockies beat the

in 10 innings *September 17, 2008, Rockies beat the

*July 6, 2009, Rockies beat the

Washington Nationals The Washington Nationals are an American professional baseball team based in Washington, D.C.. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. From 2005 to 2007, the team played in RFK Stadi ...

*June 12, 2010, Rockies beat the

Toronto Blue Jays The Toronto Blue Jays are a Canadian professional baseball team based in Toronto. The Blue Jays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Since 1989, the team has played its home games ...

*July 4, 2018, Rockies beat the

Games 3 and 4 of the 2007 World Series between the Rockies and the

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eig ...

were held at Coors Field. The Red Sox swept both games to win the title. On August 7, 2016, Ichiro Suzuki collected his 3,000th MLB career hit: a seventh-inning triple that was off the right field wall off Rockies pitcher Chris Rusin.

Concerts

Ice Hockey

Coors Field also hosted three outdoor ice hockey games in February 2016. First, on February 20, the local

Denver Pioneers The Denver Pioneers are the sports teams of the University of Denver (DU). They play in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I. Denver is a member of The Summit League for men's and women's basketball, swimming and divi ...

defeated their arch-rival

Colorado College Colorado College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It was founded in 1874 by Thomas Nelson Haskell in his daughter's memory. The college enrolls approxi ...

4–1 in a

college A college ( Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offering ...

match billed as the "Battle on Blake". Then, one week later on February 27, the

Colorado Avalanche The Colorado Avalanche (colloquially known as the Avs) are a professional ice hockey team based in Denver. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division (NHL), Central Division in the Western Conference (N ...

lost to the

Detroit Red Wings The Detroit Red Wings (colloquially referred to as the Wings) are a professional ice hockey team based in Detroit. The Red Wings compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NHL), Atlantic Division in the East ...

5–3 as part of the

. The day before that also hosted the Alumni exhibition game where the

alumni defeated their

counterparts.

The "Voice" of Coors Field

Alan Roach was the main PA announcer since Coors Field opened in 1995. In the spring preceding the 2007 Rockies season, Roach announced his retirement from his post at Coors Field to spend more time over the summer with his family. He did come back to substitute in 2008. Roach is also the PA announcer for the nearby

hockey team of the

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

and former PA announcer for the

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquar ...

of the

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...

. He also provides voice-overs for local sports introductions in the region, in addition to hosting a local sports talk radio show. He is currently the PA announcer for the

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansio ...

of the

. He is also one of the voices of the train system at

Denver International Airport Denver International Airport , locally known as DIA, is an international airport in the Western United States, primarily serving metropolitan Denver, Colorado, as well as the greater Front Range Urban Corridor. At , it is the largest airport in ...

, and has also been heard as the PA announcer at recent Super Bowls. Reed Saunders, 23, was chosen to be the new voice of Coors Field on March 16, 2007.

In popular culture

Coors Field was featured in the movie '' The Fan'' (1996) starring

Robert De Niro Robert Anthony De Niro Jr. ( , ; born August 17, 1943) is an American actor. Known for his collaborations with Martin Scorsese, he is considered to be one of the best actors of his generation. De Niro is the recipient of various accolades ...

and

Wesley Snipes Wesley Trent Snipes (born July 31, 1962) is an American actor, film producer, and martial artist. His prominent film roles include '' Major League'' (1989), '' New Jack City'' (1991), ''White Men Can't Jump'' (1992), '' Passenger 57'' (1992), '' ...

. The ballpark was also featured in two episodes of '' South Park'': " Professor Chaos" (2002) and "

The Losing Edge "The Losing Edge" is the fifth episode in the ninth season of the American animated television series '' South Park'', and the 130th episode of the series overall. It originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on April 6, 2005. In ...

" (2005). " Acclaim Sports Park", featured on '' All-Star Baseball 2004'' and ''2005'', is a mirrored image of Coors Field.

Coors Field firsts

Opening Day (April 26, 1995)

Later firsts

Notes

References

External links

Stadium site on MLB.comCoors Field images and information
{{Authority control Major League Baseball venues Sports venues in Denver Sports venues completed in 1995 Colorado Rockies stadiums Clock towers in Colorado Baseball venues in Colorado Ice hockey venues in Colorado 1995 establishments in Colorado Populous (company) buildings