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Veterans StadiumPhiladelphia Veterans Stadium, colloquially known as "The Vet", was located at the northeast corner of Broad Street and Pattison Avenue in Philadelphia. It housed the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League from 1971 through 2002 and Major League Baseball's Philadelphia Phillies from 1971 through 2003. Originally scheduled to open in 1970 but completed one year late due to a combination of bad weather and cost overruns, Veterans Stadium was a complicated structure, its seating layered in seven separate levels: The lowest, or "100" level, extended only part way around the structure, between roughly the 25-yard lines for football games and near the two dugouts for baseball; the "200" level comprised field-level boxes, and the "300" level housed what were labelled "Terrace Boxes;" these three levels collectively made up the "Lower Stands." The "Upper Stands" began with the "400" level, reserved for the press and dignitaries; then came the "500" level (or "Loge Boxes"), the "600" level (Upper reserved, or individual seats), and finally, the "700" level (General Admission for baseball), where some of the most passionate sports fans on the East Coast could be found. The Vet had been known for providing both the Eagles and the Phillies with great home-field advantage. In particular, the acoustics greatly enhanced the crowd noise on the field, making it difficult for opponents to focus on the task at hand. The field's surface, originally composed of AstroTurf8 (usually rated to be the "hardest" of all synthetic playing surfaces), was switched to the somewhat softer NexTurf in 2001. The most notable event in the Vet's history was Game 6 of the 1980 World Series. In that game, the Phillies clinched their lone world championship with a victory over the Kansas City Royals. The most notable football game ever played there took place less than three months later, and was the Eagles' 20-7 victory over the hated Dallas Cowboys in the 1980 NFC Championship Game, actually played on January 11, 1981 and sometimes referred to as the "Blue-Jersey Bowl" because the Eagles chose to wear their white jerseys in the game, so as to force the Cowboys to don their blue jerseys, which they always seek to evade wearing. The Vet also hosted the annual Army-Navy football game 17 times, first in 1980 and last in 2001. The stadium became famous for the rowdiness of Eagles fans, such that the City of Philadelphia was forced to assign a Common Pleas Court Judge, Seamus McCaffery, to The Vet for game days to deal with miscreants removed from the stands. The Vet was imploded on March 21, 2004 and replaced by the Lincoln Financial Field for the Eagles and Citizens Bank Park for the Phillies. See also: List of stadiums
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