Capacity		45,017
	Opened		1927
	Owner		University of Utah
	Operator		University of Utah
	Surface		FieldTurf (since 2002)
	Location		451 South 1400 East, Ste. 600 Salt Lake City, Utah 84112
	Construction cost		$133,000 USD

Rice-Eccles Stadium is the football stadium for the University of Utah Utes, located on the university’s campus in Salt Lake City, Utah. It was originally built in 1927 at a cost of $133,000 USD. The 2002 Winter Olympics Opening and Closing Ceremonies were held at the stadium, renamed temporarily as “Rice-Eccles Olympic Stadium”.

The stadium was orginially named Ute Stadium, and opened on October 1, 1927, with a Utah victory over Colorado Mines, 40-6, and was dedicated on October 22 against Colorado. The seating capacity was 20,000. An additional 10,000 seats were added to the north end in 1947. Bob Rice gave $1 million USD to the university to renovate the stadium in 1972. Additional seating was added to the south end of the stadium, new locker rooms and a new press box were added, the playing surface was lowered, and the track was removed. This brought the capacity to 32,500.

The stadium underwent a $50 million renovation beginning in May 1997, which was completed in September 1998. $10 million of the renovation was donated by Spencer Eccles, through the George S. and Dolores Dore Eccles Foundations. The rest of the funds were raised from private donations, bonds, and the Salt Lake Olympic Committee. Most of the stadium was demolished for the renovation. Only the south end stands remained before a brand new facility was built in place of the old structure. The university decided to add the Eccles name to the stadium along with the Rice family name to recognize the contributions of both the old and new facilities.

FieldTurf is the third surface in Rice-Eccles Stadium’s history. When the stadium opened in 1998, it was lined with SportsGrass, a hybrid of natural grass and artificial turf that the university experimented with from 1995-99. In 2000, natural grass replaced the SportsGrass and was in place until the end of the 2001 season, when it was covered by blacktop for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Since 2005, Rice-Eccles Stadium has also been the home of the Major League Soccer franchise Real Salt Lake. It was recently announced that a soccer-specific stadium for the team will be constructed in the suburb of Sandy.

Just south of the stadium is the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Cauldron Park.

Future Expansion

Though there are no immediate plans to expand Rice-Eccles Stadium, the stadium was built with future expansion in mind. With the recent success of Utah football, speculation has been fueled about stadium expansion. The University of Utah plans on expanding Rice-Eccles Stadium to around 55,000 fans by enclosing the southern end zone and adding an identical press box to the east-side of the stadium.

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	Capacity		107,501
	Opened		1927
	Owner		University of Michigan
	Operator		University of Michigan
	Surface		Field Turf
	Location		1201 South Main Street Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109
	Construction cost		$950,000 USD

Michigan Stadium, nicknamed The Big House, is the football stadium for the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It was built in 1927, at a cost of $950,000 and had an original capacity of 72,000. Prior to playing football at the stadium, the Wolverines played on Ferry Field. Today, Michigan Stadium has an official capacity of 107,501, though football game attendance often exceeds 111,000 when bands, stadium staff, and others are added. The largest crowd in NCAA college football history was 112,118 on November 22, 2003 for a game against Ohio State.

Michigan Stadium was designed with footings to allow the stadium’s capacity to be expanded beyond 100,000. According to the University of Michigan Library’s and Athletics Department’s history of the stadium, then-athletic director Fielding Yost envisioned a day where 150,000 seats would be needed. To keep construction costs low at the time, the decision was made to build a smaller stadium than Yost envisioned but include the footings for future expansion.

Michigan Stadium is also the site of University of Michigan main graduation ceremonies.

History

Michigan Stadium’s size is not entirely apparent to outside observers, as it is constructed partially below grade, leaving only the upper 20 rows (in most sections) visible from the outside. The stadium’s original capacity was 72,000, but Yost made certain to install steel footings that could allow for expansion. Initially, all seating consisted of wood bleachers. These were replaced with permanent metal seating in 1949 by Crisler, who had become athletic director. Longtime radio announcer Bob Ufer dubbed Michigan Stadium “The hole that Yost dug, Crisler paid for, Canham carpeted, and Schembechler fills every cotton-pickin’ Saturday afternoon.” Since 1975 — Bo Schembechler’s seventh season as coach — the stadium has held over 100,000 fans for every home game. (The game against Indiana University on October 25, 1975 was the last sub-100,000 attendance home game for Michigan.) Michigan’s game versus Ball State University on November 4, 2006 was the 200th consecutive crowd of over 100,000 fans. Traditionally, when the game’s attendance is announced, the public address announcer thanks the fans for “being part of the largest crowd watching a football game anywhere in America.” The tradition was temporarily stopped in 1996, when Michigan Stadium’s capacity was overtaken by that of Neyland Stadium, but resumed when it was expanded two years later. Despite its size, Michigan Stadium has a reputation for being relatively quiet; Some claim this is due to the lack of decks that would otherwise trap the sound on the field.

On October 1, 1927, Michigan played Ohio Wesleyan in the first game at Michigan Stadium. It was an instant success, and Michigan prevailed easily, 33-0. The new stadium was then formally dedicated three weeks later in a contest against Ohio State on October 22, 1927. Michigan had spoiled the formal dedication of Ohio Stadium in Columbus just five years earlier, and was victorious again in the contest played for the new dedication, besting the Buckeyes 21-0 before a capacity crowd of 84,401.

From 1927 to 1968, the stadium’s field was covered in natural grass. This was replaced with TartanTurf in 1969 to give players better traction. However, this surface was thought to be unforgiving on players’ joints, and the stadium returned to natural turf in 1991. This too became problematic, as the field’s below-surface location near the water table made it difficult for grass to permanently take root. The field was converted to FieldTurf, an artificial surface designed to give grass-like playing characteristics, in 2003.

On September 9, 2006, attendees of the Michigan Wolverines vs. Central Michigan Chippewas football game had to endure the first weather delay in the Stadium’s history, after a lightning strike occurred shortly after 12:30 EDT in the afternoon. The game was delayed for approximately one hour.

On March 11, 2008, as part of the settlement terms of a lawsuit filed against the university pursuant to the Americans with Disabilities Act, the university announced that the official capacity of the stadium would be reduced to 106,201 to accommodate additional wheelchair-accessible seating beginning with the 2009 season.

Renovation

On June 21, 2007, the University’s Board of Regents approved a $226 million renovation and expansion project for Michigan Stadium which is expected to be completed by 2010. The project includes replacement of some bleachers, widening of individual seats, widening of the aisles and installing hand rails, and the addition of a new press box, 83 luxury boxes, 3,200 club seats, raising its total seating capacity from 107,501 to over 108,000. This renovation plan has garnered much opposition from students, alumni, and fans around the country. A disabled-veterans group filed a federal lawsuit against the university on April 17, because in their view the design of the project does not meet federal standards for wheelchair-accessible seating.

In March 2008, the University reached a settlement to drop the lawsuit in exchange for adding more accessible seating in place of current seating during the course of the renovation. As a result of this change, the capacity of the stadium will decrease to an estimated 106,201 seats for the 2008 and 2009 seasons, placing it second behind Penn State’s Beaver Stadium. Since the current plans are still not finalized, it is currently uncertain when, if ever, Michigan Stadium will return to its status of the largest football stadium.

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	Capacity		107,282
	Opened		1909
	Owner		The Pennsylvania State University
	Operator		The Pennsylvania State University
	Surface		Grass
	Location		University Park, Pennsylvania

Beaver Stadium is an outdoor football stadium located on the campus of The Pennsylvania State University in State College, Pennsylvania. It is home to the Penn State Nittany Lions of the Big Ten Conference. The stadium is named for James A. Beaver, a former governor of Pennsylvania (1887-91) and president of the university’s board of trustees.

Beaver Stadium has a capacity of 107,282, making it the largest stadium in the United States at least until 2010, when the renovation of Michigan Stadium is planned to be complete. (It was announced on March 11, 2008 that Michigan Stadium, previously the largest, will have a capacity roughly 1,300 less than in 2007 as a result of an accessibility-related lawsuit). It is also the second largest stadium in North America, and the sixth largest stadium in the world. The natural grass playing field sits at an elevation of 1170 feet (356 m) above sea level.

Due to its large size, Beaver Stadium is widely known as one of the toughest venues for opposing teams in collegiate athletics. Kirk Herbstreit of ESPN says that Penn State has one of the best student sections in the nation and Gameday at PSU is “The Greatest Show in College Sports”. A 2007 ESPN article ranked Beaver Stadium 5th in its top 10 list of “Scariest Places to Play”.

Recently, there have been rumors to hold an outdoor National Hockey League match between the Philadelphia Flyers and the Pittsburgh Penguins at Beaver Stadium, citing the popularity of other outdoor matches.

Predecessors

Until 1893, Penn State teams participated in sporting events on Old Main lawn, a large grassy area in front of the primary classroom building of the time. Beaver Field, a 500-seat structure located behind the current site of the Osmond Building, was the first permanent home for Penn State’s football team, and the first game played there was a Penn State victory over Western University of Pennsylvania (now the University of Pittsburgh) on November 6, 1893. In 1909, New Beaver Field opened just northeast of Rec Hall, roughly in the current location of the Nittany Parking deck. It served as Penn State’s stadium until 1960, when the entire 30,000 seat stadium was dismantled and moved to the east end of campus, reassembled and expanded to 46,284 seats, and dubbed Beaver Stadium.

Expansions

Expansions in 1969, 1974 and 1976 increased capacity to 60,203. In 1978, 16,000 seats were added when the stadium was cut into sections and raised on hydraulic lifts, allowing the insertion of seating along the inner ring of the stadium where the track had previously been located. In 1980, maximum capacity increased to 83,770. An expansion was completed for the 1991 football season, placing an upper deck addition over the north end zone and raising capacity to over 90,000.

A major and somewhat controversial construction project took place in 2001, raising the stadium’s total capacity to 107,282. An upper deck was added to the south end of the stadium, blocking the view of neighboring Mount Nittany (which had sentimental value for some fans), but making Beaver Stadium the largest stadium in the United States.

The stadium is home to what many consider to be the best student section in the country. In 2007, over 22,000 student tickets sold out in 59 minutes.

In 2006, the stadium underwent major structural and aesthetic upgrades. Old steel beams supporting the upper seats in the east, north and west were replaced and strengthened, and new railing was installed, stronger than the old railing which collapsed following the 2005 Ohio State game.

The appearance of the stadium has been enhanced with the addition of large blue letters spelling out “The Pennsylvania State University” on the west-facing suites, and a list of Penn State’s undefeated, national championship, and Big Ten championship years underneath. On the opposite side of the stadium, letters spelling, “Penn State Nittany Lions” have been added to the press box, with “Beaver Stadium” running below. Nine markers depicting the various traditions of Beaver Stadium, including the Blue Band, the student section, and the blue buses which bring the team to the stadium, have been placed around the stadium as well. In late October, the walls surrounding the field were refaced with Pennsylvania limestone. An iron gate has replaced the old chain-link face at the players’ entrance into the stadium. On the new gate the words “PENN STATE” in blue.

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