Ohio Stadium (also known as The Horseshoe, simply The ’Shoe) and The House Harley Built, is the home of the Buckeyes football team at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. The stadium was added to the National Register of Historic Places by the National Park Service on March 22, 1974.

Ohio Stadium also provided a home to Major League Soccer’s Columbus Crew from the league’s inception in 1996 until soccer-specific Columbus Crew Stadium opened in 1999. Ohio Stadium is also Columbus’ largest concert venue, with seating for up to 110,000; U2, Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd and Metallica are among the many acts who have played in Ohio Stadium over the years.

The stadium does not have field lights and when night events do occur special lights must be temporarily installed usually by Musco Lighting (as happened in the 2005 game against Texas and the 2006 nationally televised game with Michigan).

The first game in the stadium was against Ohio Wesleyan University on October 7, 1922, and brought a crowd of around 25,000, which left people concerned because the stadium was half empty. This concern was put to rest at the stadium’s formal dedication against Michigan on October 21. The crowd was announced at the game to be 72,000, but no one is really sure how many people made it into the stadium. This attendance mark was broken in a game against Michigan in 1925 when 90,411 came out to support the Buckeyes; this is also the last time standing-room-only tickets were sold for a game.

The stadium itself did not regularly sell out until after WWII, in the 20s and 30s most games only drew in 20,000 or 30,000 fans, with many more attending the annual game against Michigan. The 1935 contest with Notre Dame was a sellout, with over 81,000 in attendance.

In 1923, a cinder track was built around the football field. The stadium became home to the track and field team for OSU for many years.

Renovations

As time passed, minor adjustments raised the seating capacity to more than 90,000. In 1984, a new $2.1 million scoreboard was installed. The stadium was heavily renovated from 1999 to 2000 - the press box was replaced, additional seating was installed above the existing upper deck and 81 luxury suites and 2,500 club seats were added. The track and field-specific Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium had been built by the university nearby, thus the track at Ohio Stadium was no longer needed. The track was removed and the field of play was lowered by 14.5 feet to add additional seating closer to the field. The temporary bleachers in the south end zone were replaced with permanent seating. However, the south end of the stadium remains partially open, thus allowing the stadium to maintain its noted Horseshoe configuration.

General improvements were also made in the seating and concourse areas. The result of the $194 million renovation was a capacity that rose to 101,568. Eighty percent of the cost of the renovation was funded by the sale of leases on the suites and club seats, with the remaining 20 percent funded by donations and the sale of naming rights for portions of the stadium. No public or university money was spent in the renovation process.

In 1970, the natural grass field was removed, and AstroTurf was installed, complements of a generous donation. In 1979, the surface was replaced with Superturf. In 1990, natural grass made its return to the Horseshoe, a special grass called “Prescription Athletic Turf.” New field designs were put in place for the 1992 season and existed through the 2006 season. During that last season problems with the natural grass began to arise. After serious damage to the field during use in the spring of 2006 the field never recovered and had to be resodded. That grass never took root due to bad weather and The Ohio State University was forced to resod the field again only three weeks after the old sod was laid. The University spent approximately $150,000 to perform both soddings. Due to poor field quality, along with maintenance expense and the ability to use the field year-round, OSU decided to replace the natural grass with FieldTurf for the 2007 season. This new artificial turf looks and feels like real grass but only requires very minimal upkeep. As far as lighting is concerned, special light structures are still necessary during night games, as the stadium lacks a basic field lighting infrastructure.

(source .. wikipedia) reproduced under GFDL

[ Anything to add? Spotted an error? Click here to improve this entry ]

Why not add your own photos?

The ACC.com - The Official website of the Atlantic Coast Conference
NCAA - National Collegiate Athletic Association website
The Ohio State University
Ohio State Buckeyes official site

[ Anything to add? Spotted an error? Click here to improve this entry ]