Sanford Stadium
- Georgia Bulldogs (NCAA, 1929 )
The Sanford Stadium is an American football stadium on the campus of the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia, USA. It serves as the home venue of the college football teams Georgia Bulldogs, which is organized in the NCAA. The stadium has a seating capacity of 92 746, making it the eighth largest stadium in the NCAA and the ninth largest in North America. Since opening in 1929, the playing field is surrounded on both sides by Ligustersträuchern, therefore, is often said to play " between the hedges " ( English: "Between the Hedges ").
History
Steadman Vincent Sanford, after whom the stadium is named, started up in 1903 as an English teacher for the University of Georgia. Later he represented the faculty in the Sports Committee and eventually became president of the University and Chancellor of the entire university system. In 1911, he caused that the venue for the football team has been moved to a central location on campus, which was named after him Sanford Field.
In the early years, the UGA played some controversial games against rival Georgia Tech. Since their venue Grant Field could accommodate thousands of spectators, the games were played almost exclusively in the stadium of Georgia Tech. When the UGA 1927 undefeated ( with a winning ratio of 9-0 ) traveled to Georgia Tech and lost the game with 12-0, it was decided a new home stadium to build, thus to play the Derby every two years in Athens.
Bank loans were made to members of the Sports Association to finance the stadium construction. The lenders received life-long duration courses. The event was extremely successful and in 1928 had as a loan in the amount of U.S. $ 150,000 from fans and alumni together. Thus, even in 1928 started the construction of which cost a total of 360,000 U.S. dollars. The stadium has a capacity of 30,000 was built in large part by convict labor, how many public works projects of the era.
To date, there have been numerous stadium expansions ( most recently in 2004 ), which increased the seating capacity to 92 746 today. In fall 2008, there were plans to increase capacity by a further 9,000 places. However, it was decided anything yet.