Rutgers Stadium
Encyclopedia
High Point Solutions Stadium is the on-campus football stadium
Stadium
A modern stadium is a place or venue for outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit and view the event.)Pausanias noted that for about half a century the only event...

 for the football
College football
College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...

 program at Rutgers University
Rutgers University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...

 in Piscataway, New Jersey. It is located on the Busch Campus
Busch Campus (Rutgers University)
Busch Campus is one of the five campuses at Rutgers University's main New Brunswick/Piscataway area campus, and is located entirely within Piscataway Township, New Jersey. Academic facilities and departments centered on this campus are primarily those related to the natural sciences: physics,...

 at Rutgers, and overlooks the Raritan River
Raritan River
The Raritan River is a major river of central New Jersey in the United States. Its watershed drains much of the mountainous area of the central part of the state, emptying into the Raritan Bay on the Atlantic Ocean.-Description:...

 to the South. High Point Solutions Stadium was opened on September 3, 1994 when the Rutgers Scarlet Knights
Rutgers Scarlet Knights
The Rutgers Scarlet Knights are the athletic teams that represent Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey...

 hosted the Kent State University
Kent State University
Kent State University is a public research university located in Kent, Ohio, United States. The university has eight campuses around the northeast Ohio region with the main campus in Kent being the largest...

 Golden Flashes
Kent State Golden Flashes
Kent State University's intercollegiate athletic teams are known as the Golden Flashes or simply as the Flashes. The university fields sixteen varsity athletic teams, all of whom play in the Mid-American Conference and in the NCAA's Division I...

. It currently seats 52,454 spectators after undergoing an expansion project that was recently completed in 2009.

History

The first intercollegiate football game
1869 college football season
The 1869 college football season was the first season of intercollegiate football. It is considered the inaugural college football season, and consisted of only two total games, both of which occurred between the and ; The first was played on November 6 at Rutgers' campus, and the second was...

, in which Rutgers beat Princeton
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

 by a score of 6-4 on November 6, 1869, was played at College Field, which is now the location of the College Avenue Gymnasium
College Avenue Gymnasium
The College Avenue Gymnasium is an athletic facility on the campus of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.It is the second gymnasium built on the site. The first was built in 1892 on the site of College Field, the former RU football field...

 and its parking lot. From 1891 to 1938, the Rutgers football team played at Neilson Field on the College Avenue Campus in New Brunswick
New Brunswick, New Jersey
New Brunswick is a city in Middlesex County, New Jersey, USA. It is the county seat and the home of Rutgers University. The city is located on the Northeast Corridor rail line, southwest of Manhattan, on the southern bank of the Raritan River. At the 2010 United States Census, the population of...

, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

.

With the aid of grants from the Works Progress Administration
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects...

, and after three years of construction, the original Rutgers Stadium
Rutgers Stadium (1938)
Rutgers Stadium was a stadium in Piscataway Township, New Jersey. It hosted the Rutgers University Scarlet Knights football team until the school moved to the current Rutgers Stadium in 1994. The stadium held 31,219 people at its peak and was opened in 1938. It also hosted the NCAA Men's...

 was completed in 1938. The first game in the new stadium was against Hampden-Sydney in front of an estimated crowd of about 10,000 persons. Rutgers was victorious in the contest, defeating Hampden-Sydney by a score of 32-0. The stadium was dedicated on November 5, 1938 in a game against Princeton. Rutgers would go on to win the game by a score of 20-18. It was the first time Rutgers had defeated Princeton since the first ever intercollegiate football game in 1869.

On September 27, 1969, Rutgers and Princeton met for The Centennial Game at old Rutgers Stadium, which was played in front of 31,000 fans. Rutgers would win by a score of 29-0, their 10th win in 60 tries against the Tigers.

The current stadium was built on the site of the original old Rutgers Stadium. During the construction of the current stadium, the Rutgers Scarlet Knights football team played the 1993
1993 in sports
1993 in sports describes the year's events in world sport.-Alpine skiing:* Alpine Skiing World Cup** Men's overall season champion: Marc Girardelli, Luxembourg** Women's overall season champion: Anita Wachter, Austria-American football:...

 season at Giants Stadium
Giants Stadium
Giants Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium, located in East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA, in the Meadowlands Sports Complex. Maximum seating capacity was 80,242. The building itself was 230.5 m long, 180.5 m wide and 44 m high from service level to the top of the seating bowl and 54 m high to...

 in East Rutherford, New Jersey
East Rutherford, New Jersey
East Rutherford is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 8,913. It is an inner-ring suburb of New York City, located west of Midtown Manhattan....

, a facility operated by the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority
New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority
The New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority is an independent authority established by the State of New Jersey in 1971 to oversee the Meadowlands Sports Complex. Originally consisting of Giants Stadium and the Meadowlands Racetrack in 1976, Brendan Byrne Arena was added to the complex in...

 (NJSEA). The NJSEA financed the construction of the stadium via the issuance of bonds
Bond (finance)
In finance, a bond is a debt security, in which the authorized issuer owes the holders a debt and, depending on the terms of the bond, is obliged to pay interest to use and/or to repay the principal at a later date, termed maturity...

. The Scarlet Knights had previously played several games at Giants Stadium, including the first college football game hosted at that venue: a 47-0 victory over Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

 on October 23, 1976.

The new Rutgers Stadium was originally constructed to accommodate 41,500 fans at its maximum capacity and was officially opened on September 3, 1994 in a game against Kent State University. Light stanchions were integrated into the design so night games could be played. A two story press box that fits 200 reporters was also constructed and is still in use today. A free-standing scoreboard was built near the South end zone, which did not originally contain any seating areas. The original design of the stadium replicated the shape of a horseshoe
Horseshoe
A horseshoe, is a fabricated product, normally made of metal, although sometimes made partially or wholly of modern synthetic materials, designed to protect a horse's hoof from wear and tear. Shoes are attached on the palmar surface of the hooves, usually nailed through the insensitive hoof wall...

, with the "open" end located near the South end zone.

Heralded by many newspapers, sports writers, and Rutgers fans as the "most important game in Rutgers history", on 9 November 2006, a then record crowd of 44,111 attended a football game between the Scarlet Knights and the Louisville Cardinals
2006 Louisville Cardinals football team
The 2006 Louisville Cardinals football team represented the University of Louisville in the 2006 college football season. The team, led by Bobby Petrino in his fourth year at the school, played their home games in Papa John's Cardinal Stadium...

 at Rutgers Stadium. The Scarlet Knights were ranked #15 and the Louisville Cardinals #3 in the nation in the Associated Press poll at the time. The game drew the ESPN's third-largest TV audience for a college football game. The official attendance exceeded the normal maximum capacity of the stadium due to the temporary addition of bleachers in the South end zone of the stadium. The bleachers were used to seat additional students.

Current Facilities

High Point Solutions Stadium underwent significant construction from 2008-2009 to increase capacity to 52,454, which is its current maximum capacity. The stadium features two 5,000-seat upper decks on either side of the playing field, as well as 968 loge
Loge
Loge may refer to:Geography*Loge-Fougereuse, a village and commune in the Vendée department of France*La Loge, a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department of France*La Loge-Pomblin, a commune in the Aube department of France...

 and club seats
Club seating
Club Level Seating is a special section of seating in modern sports stadiums.The Club Level is usually located towards the middle of the stage of seating sections, above the lower deck but below the upper deck. They are usually right next to the Luxury Boxes, either right above, right below, or...

 on the mezzanine
Mezzanine (architecture)
In architecture, a mezzanine or entresol is an intermediate floor between main floors of a building, and therefore typically not counted among the overall floors of a building. Often, a mezzanine is low-ceilinged and projects in the form of a balcony. The term is also used for the lowest balcony in...

 level of the East side of the stadium. A two story press box is present on the mezzanine level of the West side of the stadium. Electronic ribbon scoreboards spanning the length of the field along the bottom of both upper decks were installed prior to the 2008 season, which compliment the video scoreboard in the South end zone. Also located in the South end zone is the Brown Football Recruiting Pavilion and Welcome Center, which was included in the 2008-2009 expansion project.

The stadium also features light stanchions that allow for night games, a cannon
Cannon
A cannon is any piece of artillery that uses gunpowder or other usually explosive-based propellents to launch a projectile. Cannon vary in caliber, range, mobility, rate of fire, angle of fire, and firepower; different forms of cannon combine and balance these attributes in varying degrees,...

 for firing when Rutgers scores, concessions, and restrooms. Until 2004, the field maintained a grass surface, but has since been replaced with Field Turf.

2008-2009 Stadium Expansion

In January 2008, the Board of Governors of Rutgers University announced a $102 million stadium expansion project in order to increase the stadium’s seating capacity
Seating capacity
Seating capacity refers to the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, both in terms of the physical space available, and in terms of limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that seats two to a stadium that seats...

 to nearly 56,000. However, the scale of the project was slightly reduced due to a poor economy and financial difficulties, resulting in a new maximum capacity of precisely 52,454.

The first phase of the project, which included the addition 968 club seats and related infrastructure to the East mezzanine level of the stadium, was completed on time and within budget for the 2008 football season. The second phase included the addition of approximately 11,500 seats to the previously "open" South end zone, as well as supplementary restrooms and concession stands to the southern end of the stadium. The second phase of the project also involved the addition of a large scoreboard in the South end zone, which is 38' tall by 112' wide, for a total surface area of 4,256 sq ft. The old scoreboard (since demolished) was 22' tall by 30' wide, for a total surface area of 660 sq ft (61.3 m²). The sound system was also enhanced as a part of the second phase of the expansion.

In addition to adding seats, concession stands, and bathrooms to the southern end zone, the stadium expansion project called for a new entrance off River Road. The facade of the entrance is adorned with brownstone
Brownstone
Brownstone is a brown Triassic or Jurassic sandstone which was once a popular building material. The term is also used in the United States to refer to a terraced house clad in this material.-Types:-Apostle Island brownstone:...

, and as of May 2, 2010 was not fully completed.

Brown Football Recruiting Pavilion and Welcome Center

On July 14, 2009, the Rutgers Board of Governors unanimously approved a $5 million donation specifically appropriated for a recruiting lounge in the newly expanded end zone. The lounge had been included in the original expansion design, but was later deferred after the Board of Governors revised the expansion financing plan. The donation was provided by two Rutgers alumni. The lounge was named after one of the donors, Greg Brown, who is the President and Co-CEO of Motorola
Motorola
Motorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, which was eventually divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011, after losing $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009...

. The second donor requested anonymity. Construction on the lounge commenced in August 2009, and was completed in December of that same year.

The facility seats approximately 300 people and serves as a multipurpose center for the university. The pavilion hosts and accommodates recruits around the year and also holds fundraising events for potential donors. The center is also used during tours for prospective students.

Expansion financing plan

The $102 million price tag of the expansion project was to originally be financed via private fundraising ($30 million) and the issuance of bonds ($72 million). The private fundraising effort, however, fell significantly short of the original goal.

This situation prompted the Board of Governors of Rutgers University to approve a new financing plan for the stadium expansion in which the entire amount of $102 million was to be borrowed. Specifically, the university issued $85 million in bonds, and borrowed the remaining $17 million by way of low-interest commercial paper. In addition, a few aspects of the stadium expansion project were scaled back, including a reduction in the number of new seats (the original plan called for 14,000 seats, but only 11,500 were actually added). Also included in the original expansion plan was the construction of new locker rooms in the South end zone. The construction of these locker rooms was deferred to a later date.

Naming Rights

For decades, Rutgers Stadium has been the name of the school's football facility. In June 2010, Rutgers University put up for sale the naming rights to Rutgers Stadium. The University believed it would be an effective way to bring in much needed revenue. Rutgers hired Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment and IMG College to act as agents in making a deal, who have negotiated deals on the Nets New Jersey and New York arenas 23 . On June 22, 2011, it was announced that High Point Solutions, based in Sparta, NJ, had purchased the rights, and that the stadium would be known as High Point Solutions Stadium.

Attendance Records

The stadium attendance records were repeatedly broken throughout the 2006 and 2007 football seasons as the football program experienced a drastic resurgence. On October 18, 2007, a record 44,267 spectators attended a game in which the Scarlet Knights played against the then #2 ranked South Florida Bulls
South Florida Bulls football
The South Florida Bulls are a Division I FBS college football program that plays its home games in Tampa, Florida. The team began playing in 1997, holding its first team meeting under a shade tree as the school had no proper football facilities on campus...

. The Scarlet Knights would go on to win that game, and the attendance on that night would be the highest ever prior to the 2008-2009 stadium expansion.

The new record was set in the 2009 season opener against the Cincinnati Bearcats
Cincinnati Bearcats football
The Cincinnati Bearcats football program represents the University of Cincinnati in a college football. They compete at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision level as members of the Big East Conference. The Bearcat football program is one of the nation's oldest, having fielded a team as...

, when 53,737 people packed the venue to witness the first game ever in the newly expanded stadium. This record still stands today. The top 5 games in terms of attendance at Rutgers Stadium are listed below:
Rank Attendance Date Game result
1 53,737 (sell-out) Sept. 7, 2009 Cincinnati 47, Rutgers 15
2 52,534 (sell-out) Dec. 5, 2009 West Virginia 24, Rutgers 21
3 52,038 Sept. 25, 2010 North Carolina 17, Rutgers 13
4 50,296 Oct. 18, 2009 Pittsburgh 24, Rutgers 17
5 50,169 Oct. 10, 2009 Rutgers 42, Texas Southern 0

Other Events

In addition to football, Rutgers Stadium has also hosted NCAA
National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a semi-voluntary association of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States...

 tournament soccer
College soccer
College soccer is a term used to describe association football played by teams who are operated by colleges and universities as opposed to a professional league operated for exclusively financial purposes...

 and lacrosse games, including the NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship
NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship
The annual NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship tournament determines the top men's field lacrosse team in the NCAA Division I, Division II, and Division III....

 games in 1998, 2001, and 2002. The stadium holds the honor of being the last on-campus stadium to host the championship game. It is also worth noting that, prior to 1994, the original Rutgers Stadium hosted the NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship games in 1974, 1978, 1983, 1987 and 1990.

On 25 September 2005, Rutgers Stadium was the site of a lecture delivered by the Dalai Lama
Dalai Lama
The Dalai Lama is a high lama in the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" branch of Tibetan Buddhism. The name is a combination of the Mongolian word далай meaning "Ocean" and the Tibetan word bla-ma meaning "teacher"...

.

Every first weekend in December, Rutgers Stadium plays hosts to several championship games in the NJSIAA
New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association
The New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association is an association of hundreds of New Jersey high schools that regulates high school athletics and holds tournaments and crowns champions in high school sports.-State championships:...

 state football playoffs. The stadium is one of two venues that hosts multiple championship games in one weekend (Giants Stadium
Giants Stadium
Giants Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium, located in East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA, in the Meadowlands Sports Complex. Maximum seating capacity was 80,242. The building itself was 230.5 m long, 180.5 m wide and 44 m high from service level to the top of the seating bowl and 54 m high to...

 is the other). However, unlike Giants Stadium that hosts games on Friday nights and Saturday afternoons, Rutgers hosts games on Sunday in addition to its Friday and Saturday games (Giants Stadium is unavailable for Sunday games due to its NFL
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...

 commitments).

Rutgers University Athletic Director Tim Pernetti has stated that he intends on booking major concerts at HighPoint Solutions Stadium and the nearby Louis Brown Athletic Center
Louis Brown Athletic Center
The Louis Brown Athletic Center, more commonly known as the RAC , is an 8,000-seat multi-purpose arena in Piscataway, New Jersey on Rutgers University's Livingston Campus. The building is shaped like a truncated tent with trapezoidal sides on the north and south ends...

 in the not too distant future.

See also

  • Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
    Rutgers University
    Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...

  • Busch Campus (Rutgers University)
    Busch Campus (Rutgers University)
    Busch Campus is one of the five campuses at Rutgers University's main New Brunswick/Piscataway area campus, and is located entirely within Piscataway Township, New Jersey. Academic facilities and departments centered on this campus are primarily those related to the natural sciences: physics,...

  • Big East Conference
    Big East Conference
    The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletics conference consisting of sixteen universities in the eastern half of the United States. The conference's 17 members participate in 24 NCAA sports...

  • College football
    College football
    College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...


External links

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