Except the Dick isn't in the same location where they produced the nerve gas. That was further east. The area around the stadium was last used by Stapleton Airport as the location of runway 18/36. It was a smaller runway used to land regional planes. The 24 acres at McKalla in Austin were used to produce "dangerous and flammable chemicals" which haven't all been cleaned up yet.
Are you sure about the area the Dick itself is on being part of the airport? I was pretty sure it was part of the old Arsenal. Further south, where the housing now is, was part of the airport. I remember when they built the Dick they swapped the piece its on out of the Refuge for a piece outside the Refuge that they added. EDIT: Looking at Wikipedia, it appears some of the Arsenal land was signed over to the Stapleton Airport at one point, so its possible it was both Arsenal and Airport land. But it does say that the Dick was built on land that was given to Commerce City as part of the 1992 act that established the Refuge. Stapleton was still operating then, so maybe it wasn't part of the Airport.
I've always thought there was a missed marketing opportunity there: "Rocky Mountain Arsenal" would've been a cool name
Jason, I'm not sure about the actual ownership of the land as it might have been just borrowed from the Army. But as a radio tech who started in 1990 at Stapleton, I used to do "radio checks" when I was bored and I remember driving along the perimeter of the airport behind the Post Office facility. Looking at this picture from June 1993, you can see the dirt where the runway and taxiways were. Perhaps the concrete had been removed when the land swap happened. Location for the Dick appears to be on the runway approach but still inside the fence.
You weren't here for the 2007 re-branding debacle were you? That's an actual logo created by the Rapids/MLS. They were days away from announcing that as the new name of the team as they moved into the Dick. Rumor/reports are it was stopped at the last minute when Nike pointed out they owned the rights to Arsenal in the U.S. (Nike was Arsenal's shirt supplier in those days) in regards to pro soccer and MLS is an Adidas league.
I was around, but did not know that. My kids were small at the time so maybe I was a little out of it. As a person who does not advocate cites give up good land for parks or housing in order to build stadiums, I have no issue with this. You are only at the stadium sporadically, so stadium building is good use for such a site. The Rocky Mountain Arsenal wild life refuge, by the way, is worth visit. The visitor center is interesting, and the land is, sort of just plain prairie scrub, but a good place to see cool birds of prey - eagles and hawks, especially.
Rapids select Robbie Mertz, MF, from Michigan in the fourth round of the draft today: https://www.mlssoccer.com/players/robbie-mertz
The news stories talk about explosions that happened on the McKalla site after the chemical company closed and the buildings wee removed. An explosion during a match would seem to be a bit disruptive.