Offermann Stadium

From BR Bullpen

Home of Buffalo Bisons, 1924 to 1960

(also known as Bison Stadium, 1924 to 1935)

BUILT: 1924

CAPACITY: 14,000

DEMOLISHED: 1960

Offermann Stadium in Buffalo, NY, was the home of Buffalo affiliated baseball from 1924 through 1960. After that, the Buffalo Bisons of the International League moved into an existing but newer ballpark in Buffalo, War Memorial Stadium.

Offermann also hosted Negro League baseball in at least the 1950s.

Opened as Bison Stadium, it was renamed after the January 1935 death of Bisons team president Frank Offermann. The site was home to Bison baseball even before that; the Buffalo Baseball Park was built on the same land in 1889 - mostly of lumber salvaged from Buffalo's first baseball park, Olympic Stadium. The 1924 facility replaced the wooden ballpark with a steel and concrete one.

The stadium was a single-decked concrete and steel park, and most of the grandstand was covered by a roof.

As Bison Stadium, it hosted the first night baseball game in Buffalo - and high minors - history on July 3, 1930. Offermann closed to make way for a new junior high school - still a public school, now the Buffalo Academy for Visual and Performing Arts. A plaque commemorating the baseball parks was placed outside the school in August 2012.