Camp Randall Stadium

Camp Randall Stadium is an outdoor stadium in Madison, Wisconsin, located on the campus of the University of Wisconsin. It has been the home of the Wisconsin Badgers football team in rudimentary form since 1895, and as a fully functioning stadium since 1917. It is the oldest and seventh-largest stadium in the Big Ten Conference. The field has a conventional north–south alignment at an approximate elevation of 880 feet (270 m) above sea level.

The stadium lies on the grounds of Camp Randall, a Union Army training camp during the Civil War. The camp was named after then Governor Alexander Randall, who later became Postmaster General of the United States.

After an outcry from veterans over plans to turn the site into building lots, the state bought it in 1893 and presented it to the university. Soon afterward, it was pressed into service as an athletic ground. It was originally used by the track and field team before the football and baseball teams moved there in 1895. The wooden bleachers were very difficult to maintain, and some were condemned as unsafe in 1914. The university then asked for $40,000 to build a concrete-and-steel stadium, and got $20,000. After three sections of bleachers collapsed during a 1915 game, the state readily granted the additional money. The new stadium opened for the first time on October 6, 1917. It consisted of 7,500 concrete seats—roughly corresponding to the lower portion of the current stadium's east grandstand—and 3,000 wooden seats from the old field.

After the wooden seats burned down in 1922, more permanent seats were added in stages until it consisted of a horseshoe opening to the south, with a running track around the field. In 1940, the UW built an addition to the east side of Camp Randall that included housing for 150 people (as well as a rifle range and facilities for boxing and wrestling). In 1951, the university decided to turn the Stadium Dorm rooms into office space. The stadium was renovated at various points to raise the size of the horseshoe by nearly doubling the number of rows around the stadium in stages, placing south stands in front of the Wisconsin Field House (built in 1930), the removal of the track and addition of nearly 11,000 seats in 1958, the addition of the upper deck on the west side in 1966, and finally the 2005 addition of boxes along the eastern rim of the stadium.

Originally natural grass, the field was one of the first in the United States to convert to artificial turf in 1968. Superturf was installed in 1980, and a new AstroTurf field was installed in 1990, and replaced in 1998. A new type of artificial grass, infilled FieldTurf, was installed for the 2003 season, replaced after the spring term in time for the 2012 season.

The stadium also houses athletic offices of the university. In 2002, a large-scale reconstruction project commenced, which added luxury boxes, a five-story office building, and separate football program offices. In addition, concessions, restrooms and other infrastructure items were upgraded, the walkway around the field was removed, and new scoreboards were installed. The construction was completed prior to the start of the 2004 season. The football team continued to play at the stadium throughout the construction.

Also during this period of reconstruction at the stadium, changes were made to the visiting team locker room. Known as one of the best visiting team locker rooms in the Big Ten Conference, it was initially painted a bright pink, a color thought to affect the play of the visiting team (similar to Iowa's pale pink visiting locker room). The UW Athletic Dept. decided that the color may irritate the opposing team and had the room painted a pale shade of blue called "prison blue", named for the shade of paint used in Wisconsin Department of Corrections facility cells, which is intended to have a "calming effect." Since this change, the Badgers have had a 43–4 home record.

The numbers of Wisconsin's two Heisman Trophy winners, Alan Ameche and Ron Dayne, are displayed on the upper deck façade. Both of their numbers (35 and 33, respectively) are retired; The retired numbers of Elroy Hirsch (40), Dave Schreiner (80), Allan Shafer (83), and Pat Richter (88) were added during the 2006 football season.