Stanford Stadium
Stanford Stadium (capacity 50,000 as of
2006) is a
stadium on the
Stanford University campus. It was built in
1921 and is the present home for Stanford
football.
Built partly in competition with the
University of California, Berkeley to see who could build a football stadium first, Stanford Stadium was built in four months and opened its gates on
November 19, 1921. The first game was against California, who defeated Stanford 42-7.
Seating capacity was originally 60,000, but subsequent renovations increased it to its maximum capacity of 85,500. The last
athletics track was installed in
1978, and was removed after the
2005 football season.
Other high profile events hosted at Stanford Stadium include Herbert Hoover's acceptance speech for the 1928 Republican Presidential nomination,
Super Bowl XIX in 1985 and international
soccer matches for the
1984 Summer Olympics, the
1994 FIFA World Cup, and the
1999 FIFA Women's World Cup. Each event resulted in additional changes to the stadium, including a new press box and aluminum bench seating.
In June 2005, the university Board of Trustees authorized plans for the stadium's extensive renovation that would both reduce its size and bring it up to date with present standards for sporting venues. Various justifications for the renovation included poor sightlines in the exisiting stadium (rendering the bottom 14 rows unusable), long stairways, and lack of adequate restroom facilities.
The capacity of the renovated stadium will be 50,000. Work began literally minutes after the Cardinal's last home game of the 2005 football season, a close loss to
Notre Dame on
November 26. Bulldozers began tearing out the natural field turf in a ceremony held while attendees were still in the stadium for the game.
The renovated stadium was originally to make its debut for Stanford's game against San José State on September 9th, but had to be relocated due to an unusually wet winter and resulting construction delays. Home football season tickets will still cover this game in Spartan Stadium.
On June 22, a construction worker fell 23 feet to his death on site. Emergency personnel responded within 5 minutes, but were unable to revive the worker.
The stadium is currently on-schedule to be completed in time for Stanford's first home football game against Navy, scheduled for September 16, 2006, at 7PM.
*
Stanford Stadium Homepage, with construction gallery and photos of old stadium*
Stanford Cardinal: Stanford Stadium*
Press Release discussing death of Worker
