UAB Blazers Football - Stadium

Stadium

Located to the west of campus in the Graymont neighborhood of Birmingham, the Blazers play their home games at Legion Field. Construction on the stadium began in 1926 and was completed in 1927 with a seating capacity of 21,000. Subsequent expansions would raise its capacity to 81,000 at its peak only to have it reduced to 72,000 with the removal of the upper deck in 2004. The Blazers have utilized the facility since the inaugural 1991 season, and have played all but two home games at Legion Field throughout their history. The only home games not played at Legion included a contest at Lawson Field in 1992, and a contest at the Hoover Metropolitan Stadium in 1998. At present, UAB is under contract with the City of Birmingham to utilize the facility through the 2013 season.

The prospect of constructing an on-campus stadium has been debated since the mid-1990s. By 1999, former head coach Watson Brown stated that UAB would eventually need to construct a facility comparable to Papa John's Cardinal Stadium at Louisville. On February 3, 2011, university officials announced that UAB will be moving forward with plans to build a horseshoe-shaped stadium on campus with an estimated seating capacity of around 30,000 as part of a new campus master plan.

On September 16, 2011 UAB vice president Richard Margison outlined preliminary plans for the proposed on-campus football stadium to the University of Alabama board of trustees. The plan calls for a horse-shoe stadium that would seat 27,511 with an additional 2,500 lawn seats in one end zone. It would also include 33 suites and 24 loge boxes. The proposed cost for the stadium complex is $66 million with a total project cost of $75 million.