Eastern Michigan Eagles Football - Facilities

Facilities

Around mid-century, Eastern Michigan played its home games at a small field near the corner of Oakwood and Washtenaw, just west of McKenny Union. In 1969, the university constructed Rynearson Stadium, named for former coach Elton Rynearson. With a 30,200 person seating capacity, Rynearson Stadium is among the smallest to host an FBS team, but despite that, the largest attendance at an EMU game at Rynearson was 25,009, on September 16, 1995 for a 51-6 win over UNLV. Rynearson is one of only two stadiums in the Mid-American Conference with a track around the football field. Lighting was added to the stadium in 1974, and the playing surface has been FieldTurf since 2005. Two EMU games at Rynearson have been sell-outs: a 24-31 loss to Western Michigan on October 22, 1988 drew 23,003 (listed capacity at the time was 22,227), and a 0-0 tie against Eastern Kentucky on October 16, 1971 drew 17,360 (listed capacity at the time was 15,500).

In late 2009, Eastern Michigan University broke ground on an indoor practice facility, which was completed that academic year. In addition to being used for football practices, the air-supported structure is used by Eastern Michigan's soccer, baseball, softball, and golf programs. This is one of only three such air-supported facilities used by Football Bowl Subdivision programs. According to Athletic Director Derrick Gragg a traditionally constructed facility of the same size would have cost approximately five times more.