How Old Is Tiger Stadium?

Tiger Stadium, formerly Navin Field and Briggs Stadium, was a multi-use facility situated in Detroit’s Corktown district. The stadium was dubbed “The Corner” because its location at the crossroads of Michigan and Trumbull Avenues.

From 1912 until 1999, it served as home to the Detroit Tigers of Major League Baseball (MLB), and from 1938 to 1974, the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL).

Since being added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989, Tiger Stadium has been recognized as a State of Michigan Historic Site.

On September 27, 1999, the stadium hosted the final Tigers game. Many failed attempts at reconstruction and preservation in the decade after the Tigers left the stadium eventually gave way to demolition.

On September 21, 2009, the stadium’s deconstruction was finished, however the area where the playing field was located is still there.

The location was updated in 2018 to accommodate child sports. At the intersection of Michigan and Trumbull Avenues, Detroit Tigers owner George Vanderbeck ordered the construction of a new ballpark in 1895.

Bennett Park was the name of the stadium, and it included an outfield wooden grandstand with a wooden peaked roof. Some areas of the outfield at the time were only roped off.

To meet the expanding number of fans, the new Tigers owner Frank Navin had a new steel-and-concrete baseball park constructed in 1911 on the same location, with space for 23,000 spectators.

Navin Field opened on April 20, 1912, the same day as the Boston Red Sox’s Fenway Park.

While erected on the same site as Bennett Park, the diamond at Navin Field was rotated 90°, with home plate positioned in what had been left field at Bennett Park.

The opening run at Navin Field was scored by “Shoeless” Joe Jackson of the Cleveland Naps, who was later permanently banned from baseball as a result of the Black Sox Scandal.

How Old Is Tiger Stadium?

The Tiger Stadium is 110 years old. It as opened on  April 20, 1912.