Mile High Stadium: Denver's Beloved Home on the Prairie

There was no stadium in America quite like Mile High. Perched on the edge of the Rocky Mountain foothills, with the peaks visible on a clear day and the thin air making every breath feel earned, it was a place that felt genuinely specific to Denver — to Colorado — in a way that few stadiums have ever felt specific to anywhere.

The Stadium

Mile High Stadium opened in 1948 as Bears Stadium, home to Denver's minor league baseball team. It was expanded and renamed Mile High Stadium in 1968 as the Denver Broncos grew into one of the NFL's most passionate fanbases. Over the following decades it was expanded repeatedly, eventually reaching a capacity of over 76,000 — making it one of the largest stadiums in the country.

The altitude was real. At 5,280 feet above sea level, visiting teams felt the thin air in their lungs and their legs. Denver's fans felt it too, but they were used to it — and they used every advantage the altitude gave them. Mile High became one of the most feared home-field environments in the NFL.

The Noise

Mile High Stadium was legendarily loud. The Broncos' fanbase — the Orange Crush faithful — created a wall of sound that visiting quarterbacks struggled to communicate through. The stadium's design, with its upper deck cantilevered over the lower bowl, trapped and amplified the noise in ways that made it genuinely disorienting for opponents.

The End

Mile High Stadium was demolished in 2002, replaced by Invesco Field (now Empower Field) next door. The Colorado Rockies, who had used Mile High as a temporary home when they joined the NL in 1993, had already moved to Coors Field in 1995. The old stadium came down as the new one rose beside it — a passing of the torch that Denver fans watched with a mixture of excitement and genuine grief.

The Mile High Stadium Denver Retro T-shirt and Sweatshirt are for Broncos fans and Colorado sports history lovers alike. Find them in the Denver collection.