Tiger Stadium (Louisiana)

Tiger Stadium is an outdoor stadium located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on the campus of Louisiana State University. It is the home stadium of the LSU Tigers football team. Prior to 1924, LSU played its home games at State Field, which was located on the old LSU campus in Downtown Baton Rouge.

This article is about the LSU Tigers' football stadium. For the Detroit Tigers' former ballpark, see Tiger Stadium (Detroit). For the High School football stadium, see Tiger Stadium (Corsicana).

Address

West Stadium Road

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

30°24′44″N 91°11′2″W / 30.41222°N 91.18389°W / 30.41222; -91.18389

102,321 (2014–present)^[5]

Football: 102,321
(Sixteen times, most recently November 11, 2023, vs Florida)
Concert: 102,000 (The Garth Brooks Stadium Tour, April 30, 2022)

Celebration Bermuda Grass^[1]

1924

November 25, 1924

1994, 2006, 2011, 2014

1931, 1936, 1953, 1978, 1988, 2000, 2014

$1,816,210.58 (1936 horseshoe)^[2]
($39.9 million in 2023 dollars^[3])
$183 million (renovations and expansions)

Wogan and Bernard^[4]
Trahan Architects (renovations)

Tiger Stadium opened with a capacity of 12,000 in 1924. Renovations and expansions have brought the stadium's current capacity to 102,321, making it the second largest stadium in the Southeastern Conference (SEC), fifth largest stadium in the NCAA and the seventh largest stadium in the world.

Testimonials[edit]

Despite being 14–2 at Tiger Stadium, famed Alabama head coach Bear Bryant once remarked that "Baton Rouge happens to be the worst place in the world for a visiting team. It's like being inside a drum."^[6] In 2001, ESPN sideline reporter Adrian Karsten said, "Death Valley in Baton Rouge is the loudest stadium I've ever been in."^[7] In 2002, Indiana coach Terry Hoeppner said of Tiger Stadium, "That's as exciting an environment as you can have ... we had communication problems we haven't had at Michigan and Ohio State."^[7] In 2003, ESPN's Chris Fowler called LSU his favorite game day experience.^[7] In 2009 former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee stated on Sean Hannity's Fox News show that "Unfair is playing LSU on a Saturday night in Baton Rouge."

Survey after survey has concluded that Tiger Stadium is the most difficult place for a visiting team to play, including surveys by the College Football Association in 1987, The Sporting News in 1989, Gannett News Service in 1995, and Sport Magazine in 1998.^[7] More recently, in 2007, ESPN named Tiger Stadium "the scariest place to play", saying that "Tiger Stadium is, by far, the loudest stadium in the country."^[8]

In 2009, ESPN writer Chris Low listed Tiger Stadium's Saturday night atmosphere as unsurpassed in the country, ranking it No. 1 out of the SEC conference's 12 stadiums.^[9] In 2016, Tiger Stadium was again ranked No. 1 out of the conference's 14 stadiums by USA Today writers Laken Litman & Steven Ruiz.^[10]

LSU prefers night games in Tiger Stadium with its opponents, but television coverage requires that many contests be played in the afternoons. The university is conflicted between maximizing its potential to win and needed advertising revenues from television coverage. As explained by Chet Hilburn in The Mystique of Tiger Stadium: 25 Greatest Games: The Ascension of LSU Football, "The Tigers are apt to win more games at night in Tiger Stadium but the university takes in much more revenue for a day game televised by CBS because of the Southeastern Conference contract with the network is so lucrative."^[11]

In 2008, as Alabama narrowly defeated LSU, Wright Thompson of ESPN.com described Tiger Stadium as "the best place in the world to watch a sporting event."^[12]

In 2013, the NCAA ranked Tiger Stadium as the loudest stadium in all of college football.^[13]

In 2014, the No. 3-ranked Ole Miss Rebels played the No. 24-ranked LSU Tigers on October 25. After the Tigers held the Rebels to only 7 points in a 10–7 victory, Ole Miss quarterback Bo Wallace stated, "It's a crazy atmosphere. This is the craziest place I've played."^[14]

on a punt-return for a touchdown in 1959 when top-ranked LSU scored late and stopped #3 Ole Miss at the goal line to win by a score of 7–3.^[22]

Billy Cannon's Halloween Run

The last-second touchdown pass in 1972 against Ole Miss. LSU was down 16–10 with four seconds left in the game when Jones made an incomplete pass. At the end of the play, fans looked at the clock which surprisingly showed one second remaining. LSU used the last second of the game for a touchdown pass from Bert Jones to Brad Davis. According to Ole Miss lore, a sign was put up at the Louisiana–Mississippi border reading "You are now entering Louisiana. Set your clocks back four seconds.";^[23]

Bert Jones

Tiger Stadium was the site of the legendary "" against Auburn in 1988. LSU won the game 7–6 when quarterback Tommy Hodson completed a game-winning touchdown pass to running back Eddie Fuller in the waning seconds of the game. The crowd reaction registered as a legitimate earthquake on the seismograph in the Louisiana Geological Survey office on campus.^[24]

Earthquake Game

On October 11, 1997, #14 upset top-ranked Florida with a 28–21 victory.^[25]

LSU

Student dormitories were built into the stadium in 1931. Athletic Director learned that LSU president James M. Smith had $250,000 earmarked for dormitories. Heard sold Smith on the idea that the president could have his dormitories simply by raising the stands on both sides of the stadium and extending them to each goal line. This not only enabled the dormitories to be built underneath the stands, but it also expanded the stadium by 10,000 seats from 12,000 to 22,000. The dormitories were inhabited until the early 1990s and were used for offices and storage until some time in the 2010s.

T.P. "Skipper" Heard

Unlike most football fields, where only the yard markers in 10-yard increments are marked, Tiger Stadium also marks the yard lines in five-yard intervals.Some NFL stadiums marked lines every 5 yards until it was banned in 1972.

SEC regulations

The crossbar from the goalposts which stood in the north end zone of Tiger Stadium from 1955 through 1984 is now mounted above the door which leads from LSU's locker room onto the playing field. The crossbar is painted with the word "WIN!", and superstition dictates every player entering the field touch the bar on his way out the door.

At the beginning of the 2009 season LSU unveiled a 27 X 80 Daktronics HD video Board. The $3.1-million display is situated in the North end zone and features (on the front) the phrase "Welcome to Death Valley" (the stadium's well-known moniker). This scoreboard received a makeover in 2014 with the opening of the new South Endzone Upper Deck. The lettering of the phrase "Welcome to Death Valley" that adorns the front of the deck was also enlarged.

There are two new HD video boards in the new South Endzone Upper Deck situated in each corner that were both installed in 2014.

The SEC lifted its ban on stadium-wide alcohol sales in the Spring of 2019. Starting with the 2019 football season, LSU will begin selling beer and wine across Tiger Stadium. Sales will stop at the end of the third quarter, and alcohol will not be sold at the concession stands closest to the student section. Other regulations are in place to ensure the safety of fans, such as the dispensing of all beverages in plastic containers. Previously, LSU could sell alcohol in Tiger Stadium only in “premium” areas.