The Stanford Stadium is an American football stadium situated in the campus of Stanford University at the San Francisco bay area in California. It is the home ground of the Stanford Cardinal college football team.
Football has been played on the spot for almost a century, but the original stadium was demolished in 2005 and a new Stanford Stadium was constructed at the same spot with better facilities.
The original stadium had an athletic track and the stadium could be used for track meets, boasting a capacity of 60,000 upon construction. It was increased to 90,000 by 1935 with successive renovations.
The new stadium is devoid of the track to place the spectators closer in order to pump up the home ground advantage, and has a capacity of 50,424 spectators while having completely refurbished state-of-the-art modern facilities.
History
The original stadium was completed on 1st October 1921, and the construction of the horseshoe shaped structure took five months. Plans for constructing the Stanford stadium and replacing the Stanford Field arose when there were talks about constructing a new stadium by the University of California, the Cardinal’s rival.
This fierce rivalry led the two schools to see who could create the stadium first. The Cardinal won the race as the Stanford stadium was opened on 19th November 1921.
In August 2005, the university board announced plans to demolish the Stanford Stadium immediately at the end of the 2005 season. A new modern stadium was to be constructed on the same spot, to meet with the present standards of a sports stadium and to host huge international events such as the FIFA World Cup and the Olympics.
The construction was supposed to be complete for the first match of the 2006 season, but the match had to be relocated because of an extremely wet winter which resulted in constructional delays. The opening game of the new stadium was played on 16th September 2006, between Navy Midshipmen and the Cardinal.
The original stadium project cost a total of $500,000 compared to the new stadium’s $90 million.
Major Matches
The Super Bowl XIX between San Francisco 49ers and the Miami Dolphins was played at the Stanford Stadium on January 1985, which became the only instance of the regional team winning the Super Bowl.
Stanford Stadium also hosted soccer matches for the 1984 Olympics, the 1994 FIFA World Cup, and the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Controversy
During the construction of the new Stanford Stadium, a construction worker fell to his death in the summer of 2006.
Major controversy has been missing from the Stanford stadium, but is no stranger to the antics of the Stanford band, who were not permitted to play at the opening game at the stadium in 2006 due to accusations of vandalism.
