Sun Bowl Stadium, American football stadium on the UTEP campus, El Paso, Texas, United States
Sun Bowl Stadium is an open-air American football stadium on the University of Texas at El Paso campus, set into a dry hillside in a natural bowl. Its seating bowl is a wide arc of tiered light gray concrete benches around a green field, with a white lower facade at field level. A flat white roof section above the east stands reads "Sun Bowl" and "Bramlett" in orange.
The stadium opened on September 21, 1963, with a Texas Western win over North Texas State; the first play was a 54-yard touchdown run by Larry Durham. It originally seated 30,000 with only sideline grandstands. The press box was added in 1969, and capacity reached 52,000 in 1982 with north end zone stands and east stand expansion. A $15 million renovation announced in 2018 was completed for the 2021 season.
The stadium takes its name from the Sun Bowl, the college football bowl game first played in January 1936 and moved here in December 1963; every edition has been held in El Paso. The venue also hosts concerts: RBD opened their Soy Rebelde Tour here, and BTS drew about 97,700 people over two sold-out nights in May 2026, the largest concert event in its history.
The field runs nearly north–south, tilted about 10° northwest to southeast, at 3,910 feet (1,190 m) above sea level, so the open bowl offers little shade during day games. The south end zone has no stands; its ground carries the school's logos. The press box dates from 1969, and the seating bowl was reconfigured in 2001, when hundreds of seats were removed.
In February 2016, the stadium hosted a simulcast of a Mass led by Pope Francis during his visit to Ciudad Juárez across the border. This exceptional event turned the venue into a gathering place for a cross-border religious moment.
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