AWARD WINNING AVISTA STADIUM
Serving the Inland Northwest since 1958, Avista Stadium is home to nearly 100 events per year, as well as being the home of the Spokane Indians  Seldom have sports facilities constructed as quickly as Avista Stadium lasted so long, or served so many. The stadium, originally called Fairgrounds Recreational Park which is now entering its fifth decade, was built from scratch in less than three months to house the triple-A farm team of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1958. The original cost of the stadium was $534,700. Ten championship teams, four from the Pacific Coast League and six from the Northwest League, have played there. Over six million fans have passed through its gates. Play began on April 29, 1958 when a standing-room-only crowd of 8,404 fans saw the Indians defeat Seattle 6-5.The stadium was designed to seat 9,000 with a manual scoreboard and a large black and white clock. The field lights came from Gilmore Field in Hollywood. The batting cage came from Ebbetts Field in Brooklyn. The Indians competed in the Pacific Coast League from 1958 until 1982 (except 1972 when they participated in the Northwest League). Since 1983, the Indians have played in the single-A Northwest League. Spokane's baseball history can be traced back to 1890 when Spokane's entry in the Pacific Northwest League went 61-34 to claim first place.  More recently, the Spokane Indians were purchased by the Brett brothers in 1985. Since that time more than 1.6 million fans have visited the Indians at the ballpark. In 2005, the Indians again led the Northwest League in attendance as over 182,000 fans watched the team play, an average of 4,792 fans per game. In addition to the many fans who have enjoyed Avista Stadium, numerous Major Leaguers have played in Spokane over the years. Ian Kinsler and Travis Metcalf are the first Spokane Indians to be called up to the show under the team's current affiliation with the Texas Rangers. Dermal Brown, the 1997 NWL MVP with the Indians, had a productive seven-year career with the Kansas City Royals. Major League All-Star Carlos Beltran played for Spokane in 1996, and major leaguers Mike MacDougal, Matt Clement, Jason Simontacchi and Ken Harvey also called the Lilac City home during their minor league journey. Indians stars from the past also include Hall of Famers Stan Coveleski, George Kelly, Duke Snyder, Hoyt Wilhelm, Don Sutton, and manager Tommy Lasorda.  Since the Brett Brothers purchased the team, Spokane County and the Indians have successfully worked together to make the Indians and the stadium an important part of the Spokane community. Since 1985 the stadium has undergone significant improvements including the addition of the F&M Bank Diamond Club, skyboxes, a field level and outfield picnic area, a new press box, and additional Major League style box seats.Since 1997, the field at Avista Stadium has been recognized as "Northwest League Field of the Year"; an amazing seven times. . This only further enhances the established reputation of Avista Stadium as the best stadium in the Northwest. BALLPARKS OF THE PAST By Jim Price/The Spokesman Review This article appeared in the June 21, 2003 special Spokane Indians commemorative issue of The Spokesman Review. It discussed the five ballparks that the Indians played in before Avista Stadium. Twickenham Park When professional baseball made its Spokane debut in 1890, the Pacific Northwest League team played on a field northwest of what became the corner of Boone Avenue and A Street. The third-base line more or less paralleled Boone, which initially was served by Spokane Street Railway's cable line and later by its streetcars. The site was just a few hundred yards east of the riverside picnic grounds that were later developed into Natatorium Park. The neighborhood was known as Twickenham. The wood grandstand and fences were moved there from Twickenham Addition, a failed 1889 development on land that become Fort George Wright. Today, the original ballpark site is part of the northern parking lots at Spokane Falls Community College. Spokane's professional team played on the Twickenham grounds until the league folded in 1892. The unrecognized Kootenai-Washington League played there in 1897, and the city participated in an ill-fated revival of the Pacific Northwest League in 1898. When the PNWL re-established itself in 1901, the pros moved to a new field in Natatorium Park. Amateurs used the Twickenham grounds for a few more years, and Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show brought 30,000 people to the site in 1902. Natatorium Park Although Natatorium Park meant many things to many people, baseball fans and players thought first of baseball for almost four decades. In 1899, the Spokane Amateur Athletic Club built a new ballfield near the northwest corner of the expanding amusement park. During the 1890s, the former picnic grounds, down a long, sloping grade at the west end of Boone Avenue, had added a dance hall, a casino and then an indoor swimming pool or natatorium. The ballpark, facing a tall bluff that now houses the Intercollegiate Nursing Center on the north side of the Spokane river, seated 1,000 people in its original wood grandstand. The infield was dirt. A tall Ponderosa pine served as the left-field foul pole. After the grandstand was destroyed by fire on July 4, 1908, its replacement seated almost 2,500. The Pacific Northwest League shared the ballpark with the SAAC when pro baseball returned to Spokane in 1901, and the pros played at Nat Park until the league collapsed in 1905. Almost immediately, the Indians found a home in the new Northwestern League, but they also had new owners, who built their own field. For the next 10 years, the Spokane City League and amateur teams had the Natatorium Park ballpark to themselves. The pros returned in 1916 and played four more seasons. Top semipros, primarily the Idaho-Washington League, and barnstorming teams such as the House of David and the Kansas City Monarchs of Negro league fame, continued to play at Nat Park through the 1920s and '30s. But the stands fell into disrepair and, after a failed experiment with midget auto racing, they were burned to the ground as a fire fighter's training exercise on Dec. 19, 1945. When the blaze died down, firemen roasted marshmallows over the embers. Recreation Park When the Graves brothers, who had railroad and street-car interests, gained control of the Indians at midseason in 1905, they hastily built a large wood park that straddled what would have been Regal Street, just south of its intersection with Boone Avenue. The property, several miles directly east of Natatorium Park, was bounded by Spokane Traction Company lines on its left-field and first-base sides as well with Spokane and Inland Railway tracks adjoining the street-car tracks on the first-base or south side. The new grounds, named Recreation Park, sat only a few blocks north of the Spokane Interstate Fairgrounds, which had opened in 1901. The playing field, which sported the city's first grass infield, may have been the roomiest in the West. Outfield fences were at least 400 feet from home plate, even though the era was dominated by pitching. As a result, no home runs were hit out of the park until 1908. Initially, Recreation Park seated a thousand fans. However, by 1908, with baseball booming, management expanded the grandstand and the bleachers almost every time the Indians went on the road. By late 1909, the stands could seat 7,000, and they were sometimes full. The Indians moved back to Natatorium Park in 1916. College and high school football and baseball teams played at Recreation Park until the early 1920s. The stands were then demolished, and most of the land sat vacant for more than 70 years. Ferris Field Spokane did without pro ball through the 1920s and the heart of The Depression. However, city attorney George Ferris, who had played and later managed the Indians in the early Natatorium Park days, secured Works Progress Administration funding that built the city a new ballfield in 1936. Using property in the northwest corner of the old fairgrounds, now known as Playfair Race Course, the new facility was built to replace the Nat Park field. The pros moved in the following spring when Spokane took one of the six franchises in the new Western International League. The city added a roof and lights and named the ballpark in honor of its benefactor. Ferris Field was the epitome of the wooden ballparks of the day. Its enclosed stands were painted green, and the press box hung under the lip of the roof. Its playing surface was the best in the league. By 1938, the Indians were setting national Class B attendance records. The next two seasons brought even bigger crowds. The boom resumed after the war. The 1947 team drew 287,185, still the greatest total for one season in the city's history. However, weeks after Spokane won the 1948 WIL championship, Ferris Field's grandstand burned nearly to the ground. The Indians erected scaffolded bleachers. By the early 1950s, fans had begun to stay away. Despite additional championships in 1951 and 1953, the Indians dropped out early in the 1954 season. After two more poorly-financed seasons under community ownership, they folded for good in the fall of 1956.
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