You Can Now Sit In Metrodome Seats Again In Minnesota

Every sports fan in Minnesota likely has a Metrodome memory. Maybe it was the roar of a 1991 World Series night, the Homer Hanky waving overhead, the heartbreak of the 1999 NFC Championship Game, or just time spent with friends in one of those unmistakable blue seats.

I remember my first visit to the Metrodome was the first year it opened, and I watched the Twins lose to the Seattle Mariners on a hot summer day when the air conditioning wasn't working.

My favorite memory was being there when Bret Favre, who had signed with the Minnesota Vikings, led the team to a victory over the Green Bay Packers in his first game against his former team.

Of course, the dome is now long gone, but the seats, it turns out, are still ready for fans to watch sports.

In the small town of Atwater, Minnesota, roughly 160 of the Metrodome's iconic blue seats are getting a second life at Kingery Field.

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The Atwater Baseball Association hopes to have the ballpark improvements finished by the end of this fall, when fans will once again be able to plant themselves in a genuine piece of Minnesota sports history.

A Big League Name Behind The Project

The field is named for Atwater native Mike Kingery, who played seven seasons in the Majors with six different teams before moving his family back home.

The idea reportedly sparked during a 100-degree playoff game, when a retired farmer remarked it was a shame the park had no cover for the fans. That offhand comment set the whole makeover in motion.

Association president Brian Hovey, a carpenter, has handled much of the work himself, including a canopy to shelter the seats — and the fans in them — from sun and rain.

The park has also added a new backstop and scoreboard. The old seats had been sitting in storage for years, hauled back on a trailer by local businesses and fans after the dome closed and tucked away in a city building ever since.

How You Can Claim A Seat

The group has raised around $400,000 toward the project, and sources indicate they're closing the gap by letting people sponsor individual Metrodome seats for $250 apiece. Anyone interested can reach Mike Kingery at 320-295-3072 or mail a check to The Atwater Baseball Association, P.O. Box 286, Atwater, MN 56209.

However you remember the Metrodome — fondly, or as that quirky bubble under a Teflon roof that ultimately collapsed — something is fitting about its seats landing not in a museum, but in a small-town ballpark where the games never stopped.

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As the old Field of Dreams line goes, if you build it, they will come. In Atwater, they're building it one blue seat at a time.