Autzen Stadium, Football stadium in Eugene, United States
Autzen Stadium is an outdoor American football stadium in Eugene, Oregon, home of the Oregon Ducks. Its tiered seating forms a continuous bowl around a rectangular field marked with white yard lines and painted numbers, with yellow U-shaped goalposts at each end and video boards above the stands. The official seating capacity is 54,000, with standing room to 60,000.
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill designed the stadium, built in nine months for about $2.3 million on an artificial landfill north of the Willamette River, which removed the need for multilevel ramps. It opened on September 23, 1967, with a 17–13 loss to Colorado before 27,500. The first win there came on October 21, 31–6 over Idaho.
The name honors Thomas J. Autzen, a Portland lumber executive whose foundation gave $250,000 toward construction; his father Thomas J. Autzen, the stadium's namesake, had attended Oregon State, Oregon's rival. On game days fans wear yellow and green and fill the stands with organized chants and calls.
The stadium sits north of the university campus with multiple parking lots and shuttle buses running between campus and venue on game days. Arriving early helps visitors find better parking spots and avoid crowds at entry gates.
Since 1990, stadium announcer Don Essig has called on the crowd before each game to declare it never rains in Autzen Stadium, no matter what the weather actually is. This tradition begins with his voice over the loudspeakers and is eagerly repeated by the audience.
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