Bush Stadium

Bush Stadium

Owen J. "Donie" Bush Stadium is the name of a stadium formerly used by minor league baseball team Indianapolis Indians in Indianapolis, Indiana. Its street address is 1501 West 16th Street. It was home to the Indianapolis Indians, who have operated at the highest level of minor league ball for many decades, in three different leagues: American Association, Pacific Coast League and International League. It was also home to a few Negro League teams, as well as a Continental Football League team, the Indianapolis Capitols, who won the league championship in 1969.

It started in life as Perry Stadium, named for Norm Perry, the club owner who built it in 1931. It was renamed Victory Field in 1942 in reference to World War II. In 1967 the ballpark was sold to the city, and later that same year it was renamed for former major league baseball player and Indianapolis native Donie Bush, who had served as president of the Indians from 1955 to 1969.

It had ivy growing on its brick walls, as with Wrigley Field and Forbes Field. During 1987 it was dressed up in different ways and used as the stand-in for both Comiskey Park and Crosley Field during the filming of Eight Men Out, which focused on the "Black Sox Scandal", the throwing of the 1919 World Series. It was abandoned by the ballclub when they moved to the new downtown ballpark Victory Field in mid-season 1996. The official site states that the older Victory Field was given that name "celebrating the United States’ victory in World War II". Given the date the name was first used (1942), the name initially would have been about encouraging victory (as with the famous victory gardens).

Indianapolis hosted the Pan Am Games in 1987 and the baseball events were held at Bush Stadium.

In 1997, the property was leased by Tony George (president of the nearby Indianapolis Motor Speedway), and converted into a dirt track for midget auto racing and renamed facility 16th Street Speedway. A similar venture to Philadelphia's Baker Bowl several decades earlier; and like Baker Bowl, the auto racing venture failed (after two years). The property closed and the stadium fell into disrepair, with no apparent future. Currently, a study is underway to determine what to do with the property. The Indy Parks Department has control of the land, which is zoned as a park. Renovations, which would include removal of asbestos and lead paint, could cost around $10 million.

Between 2008 and 2011 the Stadium was used as a storage site for cars traded in as part of the Cash for Clunkers program.

As of 2011 it was proposed the Stadium be turned into an apartment complex. The proposal became fact on March 15, 2012 as demolition began on portions of the 81 year old structure.