Tiger Stadium – stadium description

Today it’s one of the most famous stadiums in the USA, often referred to as the Death Valley or simply the most unfriendly place to play an away game. And with steep stands, attendances of over 90,000 and very loud noise, it’s hard to argue numerous surveys of players.

But that image is completely different than what the stadium used to be in its early days. In 1924 it was just two stands on each side of the field with a total capacity of 12,000. First expansion came rather unexpectedly in 1930, when local sports director convinced Luisiana State University to locate student dormitories within the stand, at the same time expanding both sides by a total of 10,000.

Similar dormitory scheme was followed later in the north, when a massive curved stand was opened in 1936, adding 24,000 to the capacity. Interestingly, the dormitories were functioning until early 1990s, when they were turned into offices.

In the south there wasn’t enough room for a similar curved stand, which forced the university to build a more compact, double-tier structure in 1953, adding further 21,000.

First upper deck was built in 1978 with 12,000 capacity, but was torn down in 2004 to be replaced by a new, more corporate-friendly section with two levels of skyboxes. At that point similar section on the east side was already in place for 4 years, since 2000. And lastly, the south stand’s premium upper deck with further business seats arrived in 2014, allowing tiger Stadium to exceed the 100,000-mark.