A look at the stadiums

Here's a look at the seven stadiums the Oregon State Football Team will be playing in this season.

Reser Stadium

Location-Corvallis, Oregon

Capacity-45,675

The Skinny-Prior to the 2005 season, the official capacity of Reser stood at 35,362. In 2005 the Raising Reser campaign saw the capacity increased to 43,300 with the addition of a new east grandstand and plans to further boost seating to 55,000 through three phases of renovation.

Phase Two of the Raising Reser project, which began in December 2006 and was completed prior to the 2007 football season, focused on expanding seating in the south end zone by wrapping the recently renovated east grandstand around to the west grandstand. This addition raised the total seating capacity to 45,674 and also included the installation of an 80 ft. x 30 ft. ProStar Digital Video Plus Display.

During the planned phase three, the upper level will extend through the west grandstand.

Sam Boyd Stadium

Location-Whitney, Nevada

Capacity-36,800

The Skinny-An $18 million renovation in 1999 raised the capcity to 36,800. It hosted the Las Vegas Posse of the Canadian Football League in 1994 and the Las Vegas Outlaws of the XFL in 2001.

It was the site of all three WAC title football games (1996-1998). In 1999 it hosted the CONCACAF Champions Cup Soccer tourney. Except from 1999 to 2002 the stadium has had an artificial turf.

Sun Devil Stadium

Location-Tempe, Arizona

Capacity-73,380

The Skinny-Built in 1958, The House of Heat's original capacity was just 30,000. The first addition in 1976 substantially raised the seating capacity to 57,722. Seating was added to the south end of the stadium, along with the press and sky boxes.

A year later, in 1977, the upper tier was completed to bring the capacity to 70,491. In 1988, 1,700 more seats were added to bring the stadium to its current capacity.

Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum

Location-Los Angeles, California

Capacity-93,605

The Skinny-The Coliseum has the distinction of being the only stadium in the world to host the Summer Olympic Games twice, in 1932 and 1984. It is also the only Olympic venue to have also hosted Super Bowls and World Series. It was declared a National Historic Landmark on July 27, 1984, the day before the opening ceremony of the 1984 Summer Olympics.

The Coliseum is now primarily the home of the USC Trojan's football team. During the recent stretch of its success in football, most of USC's regular home games, especially the alternating games with rival schools UCLA  and Notre Dame, attract a capacity 92,000 person crowd, although they regularly drew far less during the 1990s.

Rest of the stadiums after the break

California Memorial Stadium

Location-Berkeley, California

Capacity-71,800

The Skinny-Cal 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.

Traditionally, during most football games and especially during the Big Game against the Stanford Cardinal, the hill overlooking the eastern side of Memorial Stadium attracts spectators hoping to watch a game for free, earning the nickname "Tightwad Hill."

A 1998 seismic safety study at the UC Berkeley campus gave the stadium a "poor" rating (meaning that the building represents an "appreciable life hazard" in an earthquake.) They estimated the cost of making the structure safe at $14 million.

Martin Stadium

Location-Pullman, Washington

Capacity-43,000

The Skinny-Despite the relatively small size of Martin Stadium, it has one of the highest ratios of seating capacity to population base; almost 1.6 seats per every citizen in the city of Pullman, and a seat for everyone in Whitman County.

Martin Stadium was the first College Football stadium to expand (in 1979) by removing its 400 meter track and lowering the playing field. This modification added over 12,000 new seats that were closer to the field and the opponent's bench. Following a 10-3 season and an undefeated home campaign in 2003, Martin Stadium was ranked by SI as one of the toughest stadiums for visiting teams in College Football.

Autzen Stadium

Location-Eugene, Oregon

Capacity-54,000

The Skinny-Autzen is located just north of the Willamette River next to Alton Baker Park. Students typically walk to the stadium from the UO campus over the Autzen Footbridge, which passes over the Willamette, then through Alton Baker Park. The FieldTurf playing field is at an elevation of 420 feet and is laid out in a non-traditional east-west orientation, slightly skewed so that players will not have the sun shining in their eyes in late fall.

Autzen Stadium is known for its crowd noise. On October 27, 2007, during a 24–17 defeat of the USC Trojans, a record crowd of 59,277 fans was recorded at 127.2 decibels. 

A similarly-loud 31–27 upset of third-ranked in Michigan in 2003 prompted a Michigan Daily columnist to write,

"Autzen's 59,000 strong make the Big House collectively sound like a pathetic whimper. It’s louder than any place I’ve ever been, and that includes The Swamp at Florida, The Shoe in Columbus, and Death Valley at Louisiana State. Autzen Stadium is where great teams go to die."