Owen Field
| at Owen Field | |
 |
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| Former names | Oklahoma Memorial Stadium (1923–2002) |
|---|---|
| Location | 180 East Brooks Street Norman, Oklahoma 73019 |
| Coordinates | 35°12′21″N 97°26′33″W / 35.20583°N 97.44250°WCoordinates: 35°12′21″N 97°26′33″W / 35.20583°N 97.44250°W |
| Owner | University of Oklahoma |
| Operator | University of Oklahoma |
| Capacity | 16,000 (1925–1928) 32,000 (1929–1948) 55,647 (1949–1956) 61,724 (1957–1962) 61,836 (1963–1974) 71,187 (1975–1979) 75,008 (1980–1983) 75,004 (1984–1997) 72,765 (1998–2002) 81,207 (2003) 82,112 (2004–2015) 86,112 (2016–present) |
| Record attendance | 87,939 (September 17, 2016 vs. Ohio State) |
| Surface | Grass: 1923–1969 AstroTurf: 1970–1980 Superturf: 1981–1993 Tifsport Bermuda Grass: 1994–present |
| Construction | |
| Broke ground | 1921 |
| Opened | October 20, 1923 |
| Renovated | 1980, 1997, 2003, 2016 |
| Expanded | 1925, 1929, 1949, 1957, 1974, 1980, 2003, 2016 |
| Construction cost |
$293,000 ($3.99 million in 2016 dollars) $125 million (renovations) |
| Architect |
Layton & Hicks HOK Sport/360 Architecture (renovations) |
| Tenants | |
| Oklahoma Sooners (NCAA) (1923–present) | |
Gaylord Family - Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, also known as Owen Field or The Palace on the Prairie, is the on-campus football facility on the campus of the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma, United States, that serves as the home of the Oklahoma Sooners football team. The official seating capacity of the stadium, following renovations in 2015, is 86,112, making it the 23rd largest stadium in the world, the 15th largest college stadium in the United States and the second largest in the Big 12 Conference, behind Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium at the University of Texas at Austin. The record attendance for the stadium was set during a 2016 game against The Ohio State Buckeyes, with 87,979 in attendance, but a large number of attendees left prior to the end of the third quarter.
The stadium is a bowl-shaped facility with its long axis oriented north/south, with both the north and south ends enclosed. The south end has only been enclosed since the 2015-2016 off-season, when it was renovated as part of a $160 million project. Visitor seating is in the south end zone and the southern sections of the east side. The student seating sections are in the east stands, surrounding the 350-member Pride of Oklahoma which sits in section 29, between the 20- and 35-yard lines. The Sooners' bench was once located on the east side with the students, but the home bench was moved to the west side in the mid-1990s.
The first game played at the current stadium site was in 1923, with the Sooners prevailing over Washington University 62–7. When 16,000 permanent seats were built on the west side of the site in 1925, the new stadium was named Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in honor of university students and personnel that died during World War I. The facility was constructed at an approximate cost of $293,000, and coach Bennie Owen himself helped raise the money. To honor Owen, the playing surface was named Owen Field during the 1920s. The stadium is popularly called Owen Field, but in actuality the field and the stadium are two separate objects with two separate names.
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