The Social Problems took a field trip to tour Target Field on March 15 to learn how the stadium was built to be the most Eco-friendly in America.
The grass was bright green which is unusual for Minnesota in middle March. The grass was imported from Colorado. Underneath the grass they have various types of dirt layered. When it rains the soil will absorb the water and the field can stay dry enough to play. The field can hold seven inches of rain per hour, this reduces the amount of rain delays the Minnesota Twins will face during the season. They recycle the water that falls, some of it is cleansed and used for drinking water.
The stadium is ironically built next to a trash burning facility but it works out well for both Target Field and the trash burning facility. The field is heated during the winter consistently 33-36 degrees. All of the burning of the trash happens within the facility. Target Field uses the steam and heat from the burning to heat the coils under the grass so it’s recycled heat! There has been no complaints about the smell of the trash. Target Field puts air “febreeze” so the smell does’t reach the field.
The field is built like a cup cake. Small at the bottom then moves outward as the stadium gets higher. Target Field has the smallest footprint in all of baseball.
Inside the building the designers tried to incorporate the Twins history and as many Minnesota items and symbols as they could. Every corporate suite in the stadium is named after a Minnesota lake. The American flag is the same flag they used in the original Metropolitan stadium. The only difference is Target Field had to cut the flag pole down from 90 ft. to 45 ft. so it could fit in the building. There are five gates for Target field. Left Field gate is #6 in honor of Tony Oliva. Center field gate is #3 honoring Harmon Killebrew. Target Plaza gate in right field is #34 in honor of Kirby Puckett. Right field gate is #29 in tribute to Rod Carew. Home Plate gate is #14 in honor of Kent Hrbek. The Target Plaza gate has 9 topiary frames shaped like bats 40 ft. high. Each lights up according to what inning it is. If it’s the 5th inning five bats are lit up. This way Twins fans that aren’t at the game know what inning it is.
Each game Target Field goes through on average 250 kegs of beer and 20,000 bottles of beer. They have 15 rooms that are just keg rooms. In the stadium they have 15 miles of piping that just carries beer throughout the entire stadium.
Click the Infograph below to enlarge it.
That’s a pretty cool graphic.