Veterans Stadium and the Jail in the Basement
Veterans Stadium installed a courtroom and holding cell in the basement, staffed by a municipal judge during games, to process fans arrested for fighting. The jail became the stadium's most famous feature.
Veterans Stadium opened in 1971 in South Philadelphia as a concrete multipurpose bowl that served both the Phillies and the NFL Eagles. It was round, symmetrical, and deliberately characterless, one of a generation of "cookie-cutter" stadiums built in the late 1960s and 1970s that prioritized capacity and versatility over atmosphere. Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati, Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, and Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis were its siblings. They all looked the same. Veterans Stadium may have been the worst of the bunch.
The playing surface was AstroTurf over concrete, and it was notorious for causing injuries. The turf developed seams, bumps, and dead spots that turned ground balls into unpredictable hazards. Outfielders complained about the hardness of the surface. The stadium's upper deck was so far from the field that fans in the 700 level could barely identify players.
The fans in the 700 level were, by reputation, the most aggressive in professional sports. Veterans Stadium installed a courtroom and holding cell in the basement, staffed by a municipal judge during games, to process fans arrested for fighting, public intoxication, and other offenses. The jail became the stadium's most famous feature, cited in every national story about the culture of Philadelphia sports fandom.
The stadium did host greatness. Mike Schmidt hit 265 of his 548 career home runs there. Steve Carlton won four Cy Young Awards while pitching on the Vet's unforgiving surface. The 1980 Phillies won the franchise's first World Series championship on the Vet's turf, beating the Kansas City Royals in six games. Tug McGraw struck out Willie Wilson for the final out, and the celebration that followed is the defining moment in the stadium's history.
The Phillies moved to Citizens Bank Park in 2004. Veterans Stadium was imploded on March 21, 2004. The demolition was broadcast live on local television. The response from Philadelphia was roughly divided between nostalgia and relief. The stadium had given the city a championship, a jail, and 33 years of memories, not all of them fond. Nobody proposed saving it.