MARTIN STADIUM

Martin Stadium, home of the Washington State Cougars

Pullman, WA

Home of the Washington State Cougars, Martin Stadium is the smallest stadium in the Pac 12 conference. Football at Washington State dates back to 1892 when the team played at Soldier Field. A new stadium, known as Rogers Field was built in 1936 but in April 1970, the south stands were destroyed by fire. In an effort to get a new stadium built, Dan Martin donated $250,000 to help finance construction of a new facility. He pledged the money in order for the new facility to be named after his father Clarence D. Martin.

A new stadium was built and on September 30, 1972 the Cougars played the first game at Martin Stadium, a victory against the Utah Utes. The stadium had a capacity of 27,600 and had an Astroturf field. By 1975, the north stands were built for students and in 1979 the track around the field was removed and the field was lowered 16 feet. This enabled 12,000 seats to be added around the stadium. Before the start of the 2012 season an $80 million renovation project was completed at the stadium. It included a new pressbox, 1,180 club seats, and 21 luxury suites on the south side of Martin Stadium. Phase II of this project was completed by the 2014 season. It included construction of a 84,000 square-foot football operations building. The construction of this building led to the relocation of the scoreboard to the east endzone and removal of the 2,000 seats in the west endzone, but replaced with a smaller section of seating.