Minute Maid Park Information
Minute Maid Park was opened for the 2000 season and hosts the home games of the National League Central’s Houston Astros. It’s located at P.O. Box 288, Houston, TX, 77001-0288, and has a 242 foot high retractable roof. The park is asymmetric and the deepest part of the field measures 436 feet. Minute Maid Park can hold almost 41,000 people and only cost the people of Houston $250 million. The field was originally named Enron Field on April 7, 1999, but the field was renamed on February 27, 2002, through an agreement by the Astros and Enron Corp. The playing surface on the field covers 6.7 acres of land, equal to 291,852 square feet. The wall heights vary throughout the field and a 30 degree uphill slope represents the center field warning track. The flagpole is also located along the center field wall, actually still in the field of play.
Minute Maid Park is also the first field in the Major Leagues to feature a closed-captioning board for the hearing impaired. Only 43 feet separate 1st and 3rd base from the stands and seats down the foul lines are as close as 5 feet to the action. Keeping an old tradition alive, the Astros allow children 14-and-under to purchase tickets in the Outfield Deck section for only a dollar.
