Delorimier Stadium

Game at Delormier Stadium in 1933.

Delorimier Stadium, also known in French as Stade Delorimier and at various times as Montreal Stadium and Hector Racine Stadium, was the home of the Montreal Royals of the International League from 1928 to 1960. It is sometimes wrongly called Delorimier Downs, but this actually refers to an older ballpark used by amateur teams in the east end of Montreal, which was built on a former horse-racing track (hence its name). Located east of downtown Montréal, QC, the park was a steel and concrete structure with bleachers in right and left field and seated around 20,000. Known to favor lefthanded batters, it featured a short distance of 293 down the right field foul line. It was built in record time before the return of the Royals for the 1928 season and was considered the best minor league facility in North America at the time it opened, far ahead of some major league ballparks.

The Royals, with their affiliation with the Brooklyn Dodgers, were largely successful on the field, and that success carried over to the gate. In 1941, they drew a record 24,458 fans for a playoff game against the Newark Bears, and in 1948, they attracted over 600,000 fans as they won the IL crown. It was the home ballpark of Jackie Robinson in his only season in the minor leagues, 1946.

Delorimier Stadium was demolished in 1971, and a high school and its athletic fields now stand on the site. It could not be preserved as it was lodged in a residential neighborhood, with no possibility of adding parking. It was easily accessible by trolleycar, but when Montreal dismantled its extensive network of tramway lines in anticipation of the opening of the underground subway in the 1960s, it became much more complicated to access the location.