Everything about University Stadium Albuquerque totally explained
University Stadium is an outdoor
football stadium on the south campus of the
University of New Mexico in
Albuquerque, New Mexico. It is the home field of the
New Mexico Lobos of the
Mountain West Conference. The stadium opened in September
1960 and currently has a seating capacity of 38,634. The natural grass playing field runs in the traditional north-south configuration and sits at an elevation of 5100 feet (1554 m)
above sea level.
(External Link
)
The stadium replaced Zimmerman Field, a 16,000-seat stadium which was located just south of the current library. Needing more room for campus facilities, the university purchased land south of campus, near the corner of Avenida Cesar Chavez and University Boulevard. This land became the "south campus”, which, includes
The Pit and
Isotopes Park, the Lobo Tennis Club, Lobo Field, Lobo Softball field, the Rudy Davalos Basketball Center and buildings housing the athletics department as well as the football stadium.
(External Link)(External Link)
When it opened in 1960, University Stadium consisted of the east and west stands and press box. The stadium was built in an existing
arroyo with the grandstands built up from moved earth for an earthen fill that was then cemented over. This “berm” style construction placed the field below ground level with seats above and below the natural ground level. Initial costs for the stadium were just over $4 million. University Stadium opened on
September 17,
1960 with UNM defeating an overmatched
National University of Mexico by a score of 77-6.
A new press box with private suites was built in
1976 at a cost of $1.8 million. Because the stadium had been built on earthen fill, the press box had to be supported on large concrete cylinders that went down to the pre-existing ground level. In
1995 the next major addition to University Stadium came when UNM built the L.F. "Tow" Diehm Athletic Facility, a field house and athletic training facility located in the southern end zone.
University Stadium’s current expansion began in
2001 with stands, new bathroom and concessions facilities in the north end zone. UNM also added a large, then state-of-the-art scoreboard that included the "LoboVision" video screen. In 2004, portable bleachers were donated to UNM by the city of
Albuquerque in 2004 to take the stadium’s capacity beyond 38,000.
Expansion is currently continuing. The next phase of expansion includes renovations of the stadium's southwest and southeast corners as well as adding and additional 5,000 seats to the south end of the stadium as well as a tunnel leadning into the Tow Diehm facility . By the time renovations are completed, the stadium will seat over 42,000.
University Stadium has hosted everything from UNM football games to concerts to international soccer matches. In December
2006, it hosted the inaugural
New Mexico Bowl. The game was funded by a $2 million line of credit from
ESPN and featured the
San Jose State Spartans of the
Western Athletic Conference and the
University of New Mexico of the
Mountain West Conference. SJSU defeated UNM 20-12. The game was the first Division I bowl game played in the state of New Mexico. University Stadium had hosted a Division I-AA bowl game, the Zia Bowl, in early December
1979 and
1980.
(External Link) In Zia Bowl I,
Delaware defeated
Youngstown State 38-21. In Zia Bowl II,
Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo (now simply
Cal Poly) beat
Eastern Illinois 21-13. The bowl wasn't part of the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs, which included just four teams in those years.
University Stadium hosted a
U.S. women's national soccer team FIFA World Cup qualifying match against
Mexico in May
2004 and a friendly match between the
U.S. men's national soccer team and
Honduras in March
2005. The stadium has also hosted concerts by
Metallica and the
Rolling Stones.
Further Information
Get more info on 'University Stadium Albuquerque'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://university_stadium__albuquerque.totallyexplained.com">University Stadium, Albuquerque Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
