This weekend’s St. Thomas vs. St. John’s rivalry football game will be held at neither team’s home venue. Instead, the highly anticipated game is being hosted at Target Field, home of the Minnesota Twins.

“We felt it was a great opportunity to showcase this game and both institutions,” St. Thomas Athletic Director Steve Fritz said.

The game on Sept. 23 will mark the first time Target Field hosts a football game. The field will be set up with one end zone stretching along the first base line, and the other will cozy up near the left field wall.

This unorthodox setup will provide a unique challenge for both teams.

“They’re going to remove the mound and a lot of the game will be played on dirt,” Fritz said.

“No one here has (played on dirt),” coach Glenn Caruso said. “We’re going to have to transition from grass to dirt, but at the end of the day it’s still football.”

Saturday’s duel at Target Field does not mark the first time the two schools have played at a neutral site.

The Tommie-Johnnie rivalry has been hosted neutrally six previous times, dating as far back as 1901 when they played at Lexington Park, the longtime home of the St. Paul Saints. Lexington Park hosted the rivalry again in 1908. The schools have also squared off at Hamline’s Norton Field in 1909 and at St. Cloud Tech High School in 1945.

The Metrodome was the most recent off-site home to the Tommie-Johnnie tradition. In 1996 the Johnnies defeated the Tommies 28-10. The Tommies reversed their fortunes with a 31-27 victory in the dome a year later.

For the past 20 years the Tommie-Johnnie rivalry has been hosted on campus and expanded to new heights, which made Target Field a logical next step, Fritz said.

“It was a great chance to have a lot more people attend and view what we think is the greatest rivalry in D-III football,” Fritz said. “We’ve sold over 32,000 tickets.”

The Tommie-Johnnie matchup claims three of the top four highest ticket-selling games in Division III football history. Last year’s regular season tilt between Wisconsin-Oshkosh and Wisconsin-Whitewater currently holds the top spot with 17,535 in attendance.

With a few days to go, Saturday’s game could potentially double the ticket record. Despite this, the game will likely be the last time Target Field will be available to host Tommie-Johnnie for quite some time, Fritz said.

“It’s unlikely to ever work out at Target Field again, just because of (the Twins) schedule and our schedule,” Fritz said. “If you can make it safer and allow more people to attend I think we’ll certainly look at other opportunities off campus in the future.”

Kyle Manderfeld can be reached at mand4052@stthomas.edu.