Saints Owner Veeck Honored, Humbled To Open New Ballpark
ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) -- Mike Veeck is arguably the most excited and humbled person in the Lowertown area of St. Paul Thursday night as his St. Paul Saints open their regular season at CHS Field, their new stadium.
A capacity crowd is expected to take in the game against the Fargo-Moorhead Redhawks in the first of four games at the new stadium.
It cost about $65 million to build, $55 million of which was public money. In addition to Saints games, it'll be used for amateur baseball, some high school contests and will be used by Hamline University's baseball team.
WCCO's Mark Rosen spoke live with Veeck, who talked as if it was his Christmas morning.
"This is actually where you click your heels and you go 'We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto. We must be at CHS in a new ballyard.' All the advertisers are calling it St. Paul's front porch, and that's kind of our approach," Veeck said.
Veeck said the Saints will have 50 games there, and there will be another 150 games there among various amateur, high school and college teams.