The construction was completed prior to the start of the 2004 season. In addition, concessions, restrooms and other infrastructure items were upgraded, the walkway around the field was removed, and new scoreboards were installed. In 2002, a large-scale reconstruction project commenced, which added luxury boxes, a five-story office building, and separate football program offices. The stadium also houses athletic offices of the university. A new type of artificial grass, infilled FieldTurf, was installed for the 2003 season, replaced after the spring term in time for the 2012 season. Superturf was installed in 1980, and a new AstroTurf field was installed in 1990, and replaced in 1998. Originally natural grass, the field was one of the first in the United States to convert to artificial turf in 1968. The stadium was renovated at various points to raise the size of the horseshoe by nearly doubling the number of rows around the stadium in stages, placing south stands in front of the Wisconsin Field House (built in 1930), the removal of the track and addition of nearly 11,000 seats in 1958, the addition of the upper deck on the west side in 1966, and finally the 2005 addition of boxes along the eastern rim of the stadium. It consisted of 7,500 concrete seats-roughly corresponding to the lower portion of the current stadium's east grandstand-and 3,000 wooden seats from the old field.Īfter the wooden seats burned down in 1922, more permanent seats were added in stages until it consisted of a horseshoe opening to the south, with a running track around the field. The new stadium opened for the first time on October 6, 1917. However, after three sections of bleachers collapsed during a 1915 game, the state readily granted the additional money. The university then asked for $40,000 to build a concrete-and-steel stadium, but only got half of the original request. However, the wooden bleachers were very difficult to maintain, and a portion of them were actually condemned as unsafe in 1914. It was originally used by the track and field team before the football and baseball teams moved there in 1895. Soon afterward, it was pressed into service as an athletic ground. The field has a conventional north-south alignment, at an approximate elevation of 880 feet (270 m) above sea level.Īfter an outcry from veterans over plans to turn the site into building lots, the state bought it in 1893 and presented it to the university. The oldest and fifth largest stadium in the Big Ten Conference, Camp Randall is the 41st largest stadium in the world, with a seating capacity of 80,321. It has been the home of the Wisconsin Badgers football team in rudimentary form since 1895, and as a fully functioning stadium since 1917.
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