Miami Orange Bowl

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Miami Orange Bowl
Location	1501 NW 3rd St Miami, Florida 33125
Broke ground	1936
Opened	December 10, 1937
Owner	City of Miami
Operator	City of Miami
Surface	Natural grass (1936-69), PolyTurf (1970-75), Prescription Athletic Turf (1976-present)
Construction cost	$340,000 USD
Former names
Burdine Stadium (1937-1959)
Tenants
Miami Hurricanes (NCAA) (1937-Present) Miami Seahawks (AAFC) (1946) Miami Dolphins (NFL) (1966-1986) Orange Bowl Classic (1937-1995, 1999) Playoff Bowl (1961-1970)
Capacity
74,476

The Miami Orange Bowl is a stadium in the City of Miami, Florida, west of Downtown in Little Havana. It is the home stadium for the University of Miami Hurricanes football team. It also hosted the Miami Dolphins until the opening of Dolphin Stadium in 1987. The stadium was renamed in 1959 for the Orange Bowl Classic college football game, which was played at the Orange Bowl following every season from 1937 to 1995, although it has been played at Dolphin Stadium since 1996, save for the January, 1999 contest between Florida and Syracuse. The Minor League Baseball Miami Marlins played certain games in the Orange Bowl from 1956 to 1960.

Contents 1 History 2 Stadium Events 3 Hurricane Wilma 4 External links

[edit] History

The stadium was built by the City of Miami Public Works Department. Construction began in 1936 and was completed in mid-1937. The stadium opened for Miami Hurricanes football on December 10, 1937. Prior to that their home field, according to some internet sources, had been a venue called Miami Field Stadium, which sat around 6,000.

The Orange Bowl was originally named after Roddy Burdine, one of Miami's pioneers. The original stadium consisted of the two sideline lower decks. Seating was added in the endzones in the 1940s, and by the end of the 1950s the stadium was double-decked on the sidelines. The AFL expansion Miami Dolphins played their first regular season game ever in the stadium on September 2, 1966. The west endzone upper deck section was then added in the 1960s, bringing the stadium to its peak capacity of 80,010. In 1977 the permanent seats in the east endzone were removed, and further upgrades have brought the stadium to its current capacity and design. The city skyline can be seen to the east through the open end, over the modern scoreboard and palm trees. The surface has always been natural grass, except for a time in the 1970's. PolyTurf, an artificial turf similar to AstroTurf, was installed for the 1970 football season. It was removed and replaced with a type of natural grass known as Prescription Athletic Turf for the 1976 football season.

In addition to football, the stadium also hosts concerts and other public events. The stadium has a regular capacity of 74,476 orange seats, and can seat up to 82,000 for concerts and other events where additional seating can be placed on the playing field.

The City of Miami recently embarked on a plan to extensively renovate the stadium. However, those plans fell by the wayside as Miami focused on attempting to keep the Florida Marlins in-town, forcing the Hurricanes to threaten to move to Dolphin Stadium if a plan to renovate the stadium were not in place within 45 days. Some fear that Miami would permit the college to leave, only to tear down the Orange Bowl and replace it with the new stadium for the Marlins. [1]

[edit] Stadium Events

The stadium has hosted several soccer matches in recent years, including Marlboro Soccer Cup, an AC Milan Soccer Game, CONCACAF Gold Cup matches, and some 1996 Summer Olympics soccer games. In 1987, an NWA Great American Bash wrestling supercard was held in the stadium.

The Orange Bowl is one of two stadiums to host five NFL Super Bowls (II, III, V, X and XIII). (The other is the Rose Bowl. The Louisiana Superdome has hosted the most Super Bowls, six.) The former college football all-star game, the North-South Shrine Game, was held there from 1948 to 1973, and the NFL Pro Bowl was held there in 1975.

In addition to sporting events the stadium has also hosted a multitude of other events such as Monster Jam, bank repossession and car sales, car shows by the Enchanted Dreamz car and bicycle club, and concerts by the Eagles, The Rolling Stones, Genesis, Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Pink Floyd, The Police, Prince, and countless others. Prince chose the stadium as the venue for the grand finale of his Purple Rain Tour in April 1985. [2] In honor of the occasion, the stadium was rechristened the "Purple Bowl." In addition, the site was used for the Haiti national football team for their "home" matches due to violent flareups in Haiti resulting from political instability.

[edit] Hurricane Wilma

In 2005, Hurricane Wilma caused some structural damage which rekindled discussion of tearing down the aging stadium. The damage has since been repaired. The Orange Bowl, however, was recently voted in an ESPN national online poll as the best stadium to play in.

[edit] External links

• Orange Bowl Official Web Site
• Orange Bowl Redevelopment Web site
• University of Miami Hurricanes Orange Bowl Stadium Page
• Aerial Views of Miami Orange Bowl Stadium
• Orange Bowl Seating Chart

Preceded by current stadium	Home of the Miami Hurricanes 1937–	Succeeded by current stadium
Preceded by First stadium	Home of the Miami Dolphins 1966–1986	Succeeded by Dolphin Stadium
Preceded by Arrowhead Stadium 1974	Host of the NFL Pro Bowl 1975	Succeeded by Louisiana Superdome 1976
Preceded by Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Super Bowl I	Host of Super Bowl II and Super Bowl III 1967 and 1968	Succeeded by Tulane Stadium Super Bowl IV
Preceded by Tulane Stadium Super Bowl IV	Host of Super Bowl V 1970	Succeeded by Tulane Stadium Super Bowl VI
Preceded by Tulane Stadium Super Bowl IX	Host of Super Bowl X 1976	Succeeded by Rose Bowl Stadium Super Bowl XI
Preceded by Louisiana Superdome Super Bowl XII	Host of Super Bowl XIII 1979	Succeeded by Rose Bowl Stadium Super Bowl XIV

Current ACC Football Stadiums
Atlantic: Alumni Stadium (Boston College) • Byrd Stadium (Maryland) • Carter-Finley Stadium (NC State) • Doak Campbell Stadium (Florida State) • Groves Stadium (Wake Forest) • Memorial Stadium (Clemson) Coastal: Bobby Dodd Stadium (Georgia Tech) • Kenan Stadium (North Carolina) • Lane Stadium (Virginia Tech) • Miami Orange Bowl (Miami) • Scott Stadium (Virginia) • Wallace Wade Stadium (Duke)

Coordinates: 25°46′40.9″N, 80°13′11.3″W