Neil F. Lampson Stadium is located on the campus of Kennewick High School and serves as the home for the Kennewick Lions, Kamiakin Braves, and Southridge Suns football and soccer teams. The stadium was renamed from KHS Stadium in June, 1994 and honors Neil F. Lampson whose massive cranes are used in construction around the world and was a great advocate and philanthropist to the Kennewick community.

Lampson stadium sits on the original site of the football field built before the start of the 1934 season. The first game was played against the Grandview Greyhounds on Friday, October 5, 1934. According to Bill Graves in the Kennewick Courier-Report "The new athletic field was the scene of colorful dedication exercises and the initial game was played on the newly planted grass. Under a boiling sun, the Lions pranced onto the field and started warming up." The 1934 season also introduced the "Lions" nickname. Previously Kennewick High were referred to as the Orangemen, Orange and Black, or the Phantoms/Fighting Phantoms. Coincidentally, the Lions were coached by the legendary Harold "Pop" Keeney whose name now graces the football stadium in Bothell.

In 1939, the community began a project to install lights on the playfield. Pasco was the only local field with lights for night games but the schedule only allowed Kennewick to play one home game a year there. The Chamber of Commerce and the Kiwanis Club got behind the effort to raise the $1,750 needed for the 8 poles and the lights totalling 60,000 watts. The Kennewick Auto Company donated a Shetland pony to raise money for the effort. The lights were ready for a contest against the Prosser Mustangs on Tuesday, October 3, 1939. All proceeds from this game were used to help pay back the many businesses that loaned the A.S.B. for the cost of the lighting. The Lions dedicated the lights in a winning fashion, taking the game 27-0 from the Mustangs.

In 1964, two students spearhead a campaign to build a football stadium for Kennewick. Don Schuster and Gary Brehm led a drive to raise $60,000 toward the new venture. Schuster was keeping a spring campaign promise when he ran for A.S.B. Vice President. The Kennewick High students voted to donate $10,000 and the students from Park and Highland junior high's kicked in another $7,500. The students held a season ticket drive. For $15 the ticket holder would be guaranteed a seat at all Lion's games as well as the junior high contests. Their goal was to sell 2,900 season tickets.

Much like the 1939 lighting effort, the Kennewick Chamber of Commerce and the Kiwanis Club supported the students in a door-to-door fund-rasing drive to sell the season tickets. Century Club tickets could be purchased for $100 and gave the bearer two seats on the 50-yard line and their names on the seats.

In April, 1964 as the students reached the half-way point of their goal, a new problem arose. The current alignment of north to south didn't leave enough room for the temporary visitors bleacher so the entire stadium had to be turned 180 degrees to point east to west. The old track surrounding the football field was removed as well, thus providing better sightlines enjoyed today. By June the students had raised $46,000 including a donation from the Kennewick High yearbook profits. On June 11th, bids went out for the construction of the stadium.

On Friday, September 24, 1964 the new "Lions Den" was ready for its dedication. The Lions welcomed the Rogers Pirates from Spokane and once again, christened the new venue with 21-6 victory.

The visitors (North) bleachers were updated in 1984, again utilizing community fund-raising ($63,000) and in-kind donated labor and materials of about $125,000. The new bleachers were ready for the 1984 season but by 1993 there were issues. An engineering study on the visitor bleachers indentified structural issues and were closed to all but the first five rows. 

But this wasn't the only problem.

Since Kamiakin High School opened in 1970 the grass football field had endured hundreds of football games and soccer matches and by the time the playoffs rolled around, the field was essentially a mud-pit. Add the fact that the lighting was poor, there was no parking for spectators, and the locker rooms teams used at Kennewick High were beyond dilapidated. Kennewick played the Puyallup Vikings in the AAA State Semi-Finals in 1992 and legendary Viking Coach Mike Huard said the locker rooms were "atrocious. It was as bad as I've seen in a long time."

In 1993 a new effort was launched to upgrade the stadium. This time, however, no amount of community fund-raising would make up the approximately $4 million required to bring the stadium to standards with new locker rooms, visitor bleachers, and an AstroTurf field. The first bond vote was held in November 1983 and was coupled with the $37 million ask for a third high school (Southridge). While the high school bond passed, the vote for the new stadium failed.

A new bond issue was brought to Kennewick voters in May 1994. This time, however, a stadium bond committee did its homework and prepared a great case for upgrading the stadium. The fact that now three high schools would be playing all of their games at the stadium, the addition of an artificial surface allowed for many more community activities including marching band, drill teams, youth soccer and GridKids football. They laid out the case for a community facility and also noted that the bond would contain money for new running tracks at both Kennewick and Kamiakin High Schools.

This time, the bond passed with 70.71 percent of the vote.

Constructing a new stadium also required a name change. KHS Stadium wouldn't suffice because the new high school was called Southridge. Lion's Den was certainly out. So, the community looked to name the field after someone who had brought great pride to the Kennewick and Tri-Cities community. Neil F. Lampson Stadium is a great place to hang out on a Friday.

On Friday night, September 8, 1995 the Kamiakin Braves welcomed the Moses Lake Chiefs to Lampson Stadium. Just like its Kennewick Lion bretheren in previous debuts, the Braves scored a 28-21 victory. Neil F. Lampson Stadium was dedicated on September 29, 1995 before the first Kennewick/Kamiakin football game on the new turf.