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California Memorial Stadium is an outdoor football stadium on the campus of the University of California in Berkeley. Commonly known as Memorial Stadium, it is the home field for the University of California Golden Bears of the Pacific Ten Conference. The venue opened in 1923 and currently seats 71,799 fans, making it northern California's largest football stadium in terms of seating capacity.[2] The stadium was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on November 27, 2006.[3]
Memorial Stadium was funded from public contributions, as a memorial to Californians who lost their lives in World War I (1917-18). The chair of the architectural committee was John Galen Howard, the university's chief architect, and his influence is evident in the stadium's neoclassical motif. In addition to its unique architecture, the stadium's position at the foot of the Berkeley hills provides top row spectators with panoramic views of San Francisco Bay and west side viewers with views of the Berkeley Hills and Strawberry Canyon. This has earned it a reputation as one of the most scenic venues in college football.
Memorial Stadium does not have a running track, so the stands descend right down to the football field (the lowest central seating views on the west side can be blocked by the standing visiting team reserve members). The playing field runs NW-SE, at an elevation of 410 feet (125 m) above sea level. [1]
Traditionally, during most football games and especially during the Big Game against Stanford, the hill overlooking the eastern side of Memorial Stadium attracts spectators hoping to watch a game for free, earning the nickname "Tightwad Hill."
The university claims that Memorial Stadium is valued at $593 million based on the construction costs of a replacement stadium.[4] The city of Berkeley claims that the stadium's true value does not exceed $110 million.[5]
[edit] Playing surface
Originally a natural grass field, AstroTurf was installed in Memorial Stadium in 1981 and remained for 14 seasons. Natural grass returned for the 1995 season, until the 2003 installation of Momentum Turf, a next-generation infilled artificial turf, similar to FieldTurf. [2]
A portion of California Memorial Stadium with Panoramic Hill in the background.
The Momentum Turf surface allows for minimal maintenance and increased utilization of the stadium, for football practices and other sports, on the space-limited UC-Berkeley campus. After returning to natural turf in 1995, varsity football practices were held at Witter Rugby Field, saving the stadium's grass field for game days only. Memorial Stadium's field is also marked for international soccer, but this allows little reserve room beyond the official lines.
Memorial Stadium supporting columns diverging due to
fault creep
[edit] Hayward Fault
The Hayward Fault passes directly under the playing field of Memorial (nearly from goal post to goal post), [3] where right-lateral strike-slip motion is shifting the northeast half of the building to the southwest at a rate of 1.2 mm/yr. Expansion joints have been placed in the walls of the stadium to maintain the integrity of the building. A 1998 seismic safety study at the Berkeley campus gave the stadium a "poor" rating (meaning that the building represents an "appreciable life hazard" in an earthquake), and estimated the cost of making the structure safe at $14 million.
[edit] Stadium Renovation
Construction of the Student-Athlete High Performance Center in September 2009
In February 2005, Chancellor Robert Birgeneau announced plans to renovate Memorial Stadium, improving the existing facilities and creating a safer environment for the fans as well as the people that work at the stadium. Currently many of the university sports teams use offices, locker rooms, and weight rooms in the stadium on a daily basis. Phase I consists of building the 142,000 square-foot Student-Athlete High Performance Center next to the west wall of the stadium. Football and 12 of Cal's Olympic sports teams will move into new locker rooms, offices and meeting rooms at the center. Training, sports medicine facilities, and an academic center in the SAHPC will be available to the campus' 450 student-athletes year round.[6] The roof of the athletic center will act as a pedestrian plaza on gamedays. Phase I of the renovations was scheduled to begin the spring and summer of 2006 but was delayed by a court injunction due to three lawsuits against the project. A small group of tree-sitters occupied the oak grove on the west side of the stadium beginning on the "Big Game" day in December 2006. In September 2008 the court injunction was lifted, the protesters came down, and construction of the athletic center began.
Phase II will renovate the seismically vulnerable west side of the stadium. The University plans to add amenities such as new concessions, restrooms, and a new press box. Extensive seismic modifications will address life safety (see Hayward Fault Zone for possible solutions). Phase III will renovate the east side of the stadium.
The NFL's Oakland Raiders played their second game of the 1973 regular season at Memorial Stadium. The game against the defending Super Bowl champion Miami Dolphins was moved from the Raiders' regular home, the Oakland Coliseum, because the Oakland Athletics were utilizing the Oakland Coliseum for the 1973 World Series. The Raiders ended the Dolphins' 18-game winning streak with a 12-7 victory on four field goals by 45-year-old George Blanda on September 23. [4]
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.calbears.com/facilities/memorial-stadium.html
- ^ "Memorial Stadium". University of California, Berkeley. http://calbears.cstv.com/trads/cal-m-fb-stad.html. Retrieved 2007-03-17.
- ^ "NRIS". National Park Service. http://www.nr.nps.gov. Retrieved 2008-04-23.
- ^ Bender, Kristin; Okanes, Jonathan; Woodall, Angela, written at Berkeley, California, "Judge rules in UC Berkeley's favor to build sports facility", The Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California: MediaNews Group), http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/ci_9630203, retrieved 2008-06-19
- ^ Johnston, Jacqueline, "UC Makes Changes to Athletic Center Plan", The Daily Californian (Berkeley, California), http://www.dailycal.org/article/102006/uc_makes_change_to_athletic_center_plan, retrieved 2008-12-23
- ^ "Student-Athlete High Performance Center Project Description". UC Berkeley. http://stadiumcampaign.berkeley.edu/project-description/. Retrieved 2009-07-06.
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