Legion Field
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| Legion Field
Birmingham, Alabama |
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|---|---|
| "Football Capital of the South" | |
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| Location | 400 Graymont Ave W Birmingham, AL 35204 |
| Opened | 1926 |
| Owner | City of Birmingham |
| Operator | UAB |
| Surface | Turf |
| Construction cost | $439,000 USD |
| Tenants | |
| UAB Blazers (NCAA Football) (1991-present) Birmingham Americans (WFL) (1974) Birmingham Vulcans (WFL) (1975) Alabama Vulcans (AFA) (1979) Birmingham Stallions (USFL) (1983-85) Birmingham Fire (WLAF) (1991-92) Birmingham Barracudas (CFL) (1995) Birmingham Thunderbolts (XFL) (2001) |
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| Capacity | |
| 71,594 (Current) | |
Legion Field is a large stadium in Birmingham, Alabama primarily designed to be used as a venue for American football, but is occasionally used for other large outdoor events. The stadium is named in honor of the American Legion, a U.S. organization of military veterans. At its peak it seated 83,091 people for football. Today, after the removal of the upper deck, Legion Field seats approximately 71,594 spectators.
Legion Field currently serves as the home field of the UAB Blazers, who compete in Conference USA. The University of Alabama once played up to three home football games there every season but has ended this practice; its last game at Legion Field was a 40-17 victory over the University of South Florida on August 30, 2003. Auburn University also used Legion Field less extensively, but the Tigers left upon the expansion of Jordan-Hare Stadium to a greater seating capacity. After 1980, Auburn's only home game in Birmingham was the Iron Bowl up to 1987 and in 1991.[citation needed]
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[edit] Stadium History
Legion Field perhaps was best-known for hosting the season-ending game between Alabama and Auburn each year from 1948 to 1988. Because of Birmingham's major industry of iron and steel manufacturing, the game became known as the "Iron Bowl". In 1989 Auburn moved their home games in the series to their own stadium, although they did play one last home game at Legion Field in 1991. Alabama followed suit in 2000. Alabama holds a 32-15 edge over their in-state rival in games played at Legion Field.
In 1979 and 1980, the facility played host to the Drum Corps International World Championships. In the summer of 1996, Legion Field served as a soccer venue for the 1996 Summer Olympics.
Legion Field also hosted four post-season college football games, the Dixie Bowl (1947-1948), the Hall of Fame Classic (1977-1985), the All-American Bowl (1986-1990), and the first two Southeastern Conference championship games (1992-1993). It still hosts the title football game for the historically black Southwestern Athletic Conference ('SWAC').
The venue also served as home field for the Birmingham Americans (Vulcans) of the World Football League (1974-1975), the Alabama Vulcans of the American Football Association (1979), the Birmingham Stallions of the United States Football League (1983-1985), and the Birmingham Fire of the World League of American Football (now NFL Europe) in 1991-92. Afterward in 1995, it was the home field of the Birmingham Barracudas for their single season of play as part of the short-lived expansion of the Canadian Football League into the U.S. Later (2001), it was the home field for the single season of the Birmingham Thunderbolts of the XFL. On August 19, 2004, the University of Alabama announced that they would not be playing any further home games at the venue, leaving UAB football as the sole collegiate tenant.
Recently, Legion Field had been used successfully as a site for major soccer events, including matchups in the 1996 Olympic Games — the opening match between the United States and Argentina drew 83,810 spectators, the stadium's all-time record for any event. Legion Field had also hosted exhibition games by the U.S. men's and women's national soccer teams, and in 2005 it hosted a World Cup qualifier between the U.S. and Guatemala. US Soccer will no longer be scheduling games for play at Legion Field because of a switch from natural grass to artificial turf.
[edit] Attendance Records
| Opponent | Attendance | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Southern Miss (2003) | 44,669 |
| 2 | Mississippi State (2006) | 36,104 |
| 3 | TCU (2004) | 33,280 |
| 4 | Troy (2006) | 32,818 |
| 5 | Virginia Tech (1998) | 31,897 |
| 6 | Southern Miss (2005) | 31,363 |
| 7 | Kansas (1998) | 30,543 |
| 8 | Houston (1999) | 28,573 |
[edit] Current Uses
Outside of serving as the home field for the UAB Blazers football team, the city uses the stadium for occasional high school football matchups and for the annual "Super-Six" AHSAA state high school football championships. The Magic City Classic featuring Alabama State University and Alabama A&M University as well as the Steel City Classic featuring Miles College and Stillman College are played at Legion Field. The MEAC/SWAC Challenge is also played at Legion Field.
On April 27, 2006, the NCAA approved a proposal by ESPN Regional which would bring a bowl game back to Birmingham. The Papajohns.com Bowl, formerly known as the Birmingham Bowl, was played on December 23rd at Legion Field and featured University of South Florida vs. East Carolina University.The USF Bulls defeated the ECU Pirates 24-7.
[edit] Recent Changes
In 2004 a structural evaluation determined that the 9,000 seat upper deck, installed in 1961, would need major remediation to meet modern building codes. Because the capacity of the stadium was well beyond the needs of any of its current tenants, the process of dismantling and removing the upper deck was begun in June 2005, and completed two months later.
In 2006, to accommodate high school football games, the Birmingham Park and Recreation Board reconverted the grass surface back to artificial turf. Design specifications called for a FIFA 2-Star recommended synthetic turf field, the highest FIFA rating an artificial turf installation can attain, in hopes of continuing to serve as host for international soccer matches. According to the FIFA website, "The FIFA RECOMMENDED 2-Star for artificial turf is designed specifically to mirror the playing characteristics of professional football. FIFA final round competitions and top UEFA competitions have the FIFA RECOMMENDED 2 Star in their respective competition regulations." FieldTurf was awarded the project based on their proposal to deliver a FIFA 2-Star RECOMMENDED field. As of October 30th, 2006, almost six months after the installation was completed, the field has yet to attain FIFA 2-Star RECOMMENDED status. The current list of FIFA RECOMMENDED 2-Star fields is available at the FIFA website (http://www.fifa.com/en/development/pitchsection/0,1350,9,00.html). The move to reconvert back to synthetic turf has been controversial, and as a result, the US Soccer Federation has not been as supportive. In April of 2006, Birmingham was awarded a Men's World Cup warm up match on the condition that the natural surface would remain until the game was played. The City of Birmingham refused to delay the installation and, for all practical purposes, forfeited their good standing with US Soccer.[citation needed] US Soccer had regularly visited Legion Field since the successful 1996 Olympic games.
[edit] Photographs
 Legion Field Scoreboard |
 Exterior View from Graymont Avenue |
 Bear Bryant Monument in Front of Stadium |
 Satellite image taken in January 2004 |
[edit] External links
| Football Stadiums of Conference USA |
|---|
| Bright House Networks Stadium (UCF) • Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium (East Carolina) • Gerald J. Ford Stadium (SMU) • Joan C. Edwards Stadium (Marshall) • Legion Field (UAB) • Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium (Memphis) • Louisiana Superdome (Tulane) • M. M. Roberts Stadium (Southern Miss) • Rice Stadium (Rice) • Robertson Stadium (Houston) • Skelly Stadium (Tulsa) • Sun Bowl Stadium (UTEP) |
Categories: Articles with unsourced statements since February 2007 | All articles with unsourced statements | Conference USA | 1996 Summer Olympic venues | College football venues | Current NCAA bowl game venues | Defunct Canadian football venues | Soccer venues in the United States | Sports in Birmingham, Alabama | Sports venues in Alabama | UAB Blazers football
