Stade Municipal, Quebec, Canada

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Stade Municipal in Quebec City opened it's doors in 1938. This stadium has a twin sister/brother in Trois Rivières, also in Quebec City. Both stadiums are identical except in the colour of the exterior paint.
Both stadium are steel/concrete structures and single deck stadiums.

Spark plug for the construction of both stadiums was a visit by Prime Minister of Quebec, Maurice Duplessis, to throw out the first pitch at a game of the Trois Rivières competition. When he saw in what a deplorable state the baseball field was, he started to lobby for the construction of both stadiums, so the city of Quebec would have some decent facilities.
The construction started in 1937 and will last the complete baseball season.


In April 1938 the stadium is opened with a matchup between the Athlétiques de Québec vs Trois-Rivières. The Athlétiques win the game 6-5 when 5000 spectators attend the game.

The stadium was home for several teams: Les Athlétiques, Les Alouettes (grasshoppers), the Braves (an affiliation of the Boston/Milwaukee Braves from 1951). After the 1955 season pro baseball in Quebec folded due to the invention of TV. It took almost twenty years for professional baseball to return to Quebec. In 1971 the Montreal Expos housed their AA team in Stade Municipal and named the team Carnivales. Two famous players that were part of the Carnivales were Andre Dawson and Gary Carter. After financial problems the Carnivales became the Métros. After the 1977 season, professional baseball will abandon Quebec again.

In 1999 a twenty-two year period without professional baseball will end when les Capitales will be the tennants of Stade Municipal. Les Capitales will play in the Northeast league, later renamed CanAm League.

Les Capitales capture the CanAm title in 2006, 2009, 2010 and 2011.

Stade Municipal has a very unique feature; multiple concourses. There is a main concourse on the ground level which is quite spacious and features the concession stands, the gift store, and the team offices. The second concourse runs above the main concourse and is more narrow. The main concourse is also nicely decorated with many murals, paintings, and pictures making for a very colorful appearance. There are three types of seating at Stade Municipal. The box seats are located below the walkway which leads to the main concourse. The mezzanine seats are located directly above this walkway. And the general admission seats look like wooden benches in a church. These are located towards the top of the covered grandstand and have easy access to the second concourse. The scoreboard is in right center field and is manually operated.

Here are some photos of this little French Canadian gem:

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In the US they have cheerleaders (mostly not at baseball games though), in Quebec they have dancers.

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