After three days at Target Field -- the Minnesota Twins' sterling new home field -- there is one thing I can say for sure:

I am glad the Brewers fought to build Miller Park at its current location.

There is much to love about Target Field (and a full story is coming soon), but as much as I think I would enjoy the ability to walk from my place to the ballpark every day, I don't think a Downtown stadium would ever have worked here in Milwaukee.

During the battle to build Miller Park (OK, the battle to finance Miller Park ...) there was a large group of supporters that wanted the place built Downtown, thinking it would help revitalize the area like Camden Yards did in Baltimore, PNC Park in Pittsburgh and the aforementioned Target Field.

I never thought it would have worked here and spending the weekend in the Twin Cities, I'm convinced.

Compared to Minneapolis and other major central business districts, Milwaukee's Downtown is pretty small and compact. Putting a ballpark say, in the Park East corridor near the Bradley Center, would take up a big chunk of real estate.

That would be fine and dandy in terms of spurring development and getting people to spend money at nearby bars before and after games (though, bars seem to do pretty good business as it is), but get past the financial benefits to Downtown and you're looking at a potential mess.

Quite simply, there just isn't room for a stadium Downtown. Traffic already can be a royal pain when there's a big game at the Bradley Center, along with various shows, Downtown diners and folks going to and from their homes.

And once all those cars are Downtown, where would they park? The area around Target Field is filled with parking structures, some very large. Here, Downtown parking can often be a pain. There are structures, but not enough to hold the number of cars that would certainly be in the area for a sold out game ... never mind the obvious inability to tailgate before the game.

Getting out of those structures is a pain, too. Yeah, there are lines leaving Miller Park but nowhere near as frustrating as waiting 45 minutes to an hour to get out of a parking structure and into the city.

This of course is where supporters of light rail and the Downtown streetcar will dust off their talking points, but not even updated mass transit could make a 45,000-seat stadium work in Downtown Milwaukee.

Don't get me wrong, taking the Hiawatha light rail from my hotel to the stadium was cool (more, too, on that soon); walking out of the ballpark with my fellow writers and hitting up a couple of establishments was also very cool. But at the end of the day, I think the way Miller Park lies smack between residential and commercial districts of the city was the way to go here.

I love Downtown Milwaukee. I've lived in the heart of it for almost six years now and don't plan to move anytime soon. But while I love the energy a thriving and vibrant Downtown brings to a city ... I'm perfectly happy with Miller Park being a couple of miles away.