Capacity 87,451 Phone +1 334-844-4750 Owner Auburn University | Opened 9 November 1939 Surface Scutch grass Team Auburn Tigers football | |
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Former names Auburn Stadium (1939–49)
Cliff Hare Stadium (1949–73) Location 251 South Donahue Drive,
Auburn, Alabama 36849, United States Operator Auburn University (Auburn University System) Expanded Construction cost $1,446,900
($24.9 million in 2017 dollars) Architect Warren, Knight, and Davis Address Auburn University, 251 S Donahue Dr, Auburn, AL 36849, USA Similar Bryant–Denny Stadium, Sanford Stadium, Davis Wade Stadium, Neyland Stadium, Legion Field | ||
Jordan–Hare Stadium (JORD-en –hair) is the playing venue for Auburn University's football team located on campus in Auburn, Alabama. The stadium is named for Ralph "Shug" Jordan, who has the most wins as head coach of the University's football team, and Cliff Hare, a member of Auburn's first football team as well as Dean of the Auburn University School of Chemistry and President of the Southern Conference.
On November 19, 2005, the playing field at the stadium was named in honor of former Auburn coach and athletic director Pat Dye. The venue is now known as Pat Dye Field at Jordan–Hare Stadium. The stadium reached its current seating capacity of 87,451 with the 2004 expansion and is the 10th largest stadium in the NCAA. By the end of the 2006 season, it was estimated that 19,308,753 spectators had attended a football game in Jordan–Hare. Jordan–Hare Stadium regularly makes lists of the best gameday atmospheres and most intimidating places to play.
History
The stadium, then known as Auburn Stadium, hosted its first game on November 10, 1939, between the Auburn and Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football freshmen teams. The stadium was dedicated on Thanksgiving Day (November 30) 1939 before the first varsity game played in the stadium, a 7-7 tie with the University of Florida under Auburn head coach Jack Meagher. The Auburn-Florida game was originally scheduled for Dec. 2, 1939 in Montgomery. The game was rescheduled in order for the stadium to be dedicated on Thanksgiving Day, Auburn officials seemingly wanting the significance of the occasion to dovetail with America's established Thanksgiving Day football tradition, a plan nearly thwarted by Franklin D. Roosevelt's "Franksgiving" decree. Had Alabama not chosen to observe Thanksgiving on its original date, the stadium likely would not have been dedicated until 1940.
The stadium is frequently said to have opened with a capacity of 7,500; however, that was only the number of seats in the west grandstand (the lower half of the current facility's west stands). This is usually cited as the stadium's original capacity because the west grandstands were the only permanent portion of the original facility. The actual original capacity of the stadium, taking into account the wooden east stand as well as bleachers behind each end zone, was approximately 15,000—a figure that was actually quoted by a number of official Auburn sources of the day. The official attendance of 7,290 for the dedication game, as quoted by then-athletics business manager and future athletic director Jeff Beard, came from the number of tickets printed for the game. However, a thanks-for-coming note from Meagher cited the actual attendance as 11,095, and newspaper accounts reported that anywhere from 12,000-14,000 people were in attendance.
In the fall of 1947, Auburn students lobbied to rename the stadium Petrie Stadium in honor of Dr. George Petrie, Auburn's first football coach, who died in October that year. By the time the stadium was renamed Cliff Hare Stadium in 1949, it had grown to a capacity of 21,500. Shug Jordan became head coach of the Tigers in 1951. He was still coaching when his name was added to the stadium in 1973, making it the first stadium in the United States to be named for an active coach. The stadium's capacity more than tripled during his 25 years at Auburn; it seated 61,261 when he retired in 1975.
For much of its history, Auburn played home games against their traditional rivals at neutral sites rather than Jordan–Hare Stadium. This occurred due to the difficulty in traveling to Auburn during the first half of the 20th century and the capacity of other stadiums. For instance, all home games against Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia Tech were played at Legion Field in Birmingham, while games against Georgia were played at Memorial Stadium in Columbus. As Auburn became more accessible and the stadium expanded in capacity, more games were moved to Jordan–Hare Stadium. The most notable of these matchups occurred on December 2, 1989, when Auburn defeated (2) Alabama in the first Iron Bowl played at Jordan–Hare.
With the addition of the west upper deck in 1980 and the east upper deck in 1987, the stadium became the largest in the state of Alabama until the 2006 and 2010 expansion of Bryant–Denny Stadium (capacity 101,821) at Alabama. The 2004 stadium expansion extended the east upper deck by an additional section on each end, adding more luxury suites and additional general seating to reach the current capacity of 87,451.
In 1998, artist Michael Taylor was commissioned to paint ten large murals on the east-side exterior of the stadium. The paintings depicted the greatest players, teams, and moments from Auburn's football history to that date. In 2006, Auburn updated these murals, including images that recognized great moments in Auburn football history up to 2006. In 2011, Auburn once again updated the murals, recognizing the greatest coaches, players, and teams up until 2011.
Before the 2007 season, a $2.9 million, 30-foot (9.1 m) high by 74-foot (23 m) wide high definition Daktronics LED video display was installed in the south end-zone of Jordan–Hare Stadium. Auburn is the first SEC school to install an HD video display and the second in the NCAA (after Texas' Godzillatron). In August 2015, a new LED videoboard that is 57 by 190 ft, 10,830 square feet (1,006 m2) was unveiled and is currently the largest videoboard in college athletics.
A master plan for future expansion of Jordan–Hare Stadium was completed in 2011 by Pieper Sports Facility Consulting. There is no immediate timetable for the expansion, but Auburn hopes to reach a capacity of at least 100,000. The new expansion would include upper decks in both north and south endzones, and a brick facade on the exterior.