Husky Stadium (officially Alaska Airlines Field at Husky Stadium for sponsorship purposes) is an outdoor football stadium in the northwest United States, located on the campus of the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington. It has been home to the Washington Huskies of the Pac-12 Conference since 1920, hosting their football games.

Aside from football, the university holds its annual commencement at the stadium each June. It sits at the southeast corner of campus, between Montlake Boulevard Northeast and Union Bay, just north of the Montlake Cut. The stadium is served by the University of Washington Link light rail station, which provides rail service to downtown, Rainier Valley and Seattle–Tacoma International Airport. It is also accessible by several bus routes.

The stadium underwent a $280 million renovation that was completed in 2013.[5] Its U-shaped design was specifically oriented (18.167° south of due east) to minimize glare from the early afternoon sun in the athletes' eyes.[7] The stadium's open end overlooks Lake Washington and the Cascade Mountains, including Mount Rainier. Prior to the 2013 renovation, its total capacity of 72,500 made it the largest stadium in the Pacific Northwest and one of the largest college football stadiums.

History

The original stadium was built in 1920 by Puget Sound Bridge and Dredging Company with a seating capacity of 30,000. It replaced Denny Field, located at the north end of campus, south of NE 45th St. and 20th Ave NE. Husky Stadium's first game was the concluding game of the 1920 season, a 28–7 loss to Dartmouth on November 27. On July 27, 1923, the stadium was the site of President Warren Harding's final public address;[9] he died in San Francisco less than a week later.

The capacity of the lower bowl was expanded with the addition of 10,000 seats around the rim in 1936. In 1943, 35,000 people watched a demonstration of a mock WWII bombing raid, showing how local forces would respond in an attack. The Seattle fire department and emergency response teams rescued mock victims and buildings constructed on the field that were exploded as P-38 planes flew overhead to demonstrate how citizens should react. The first of the stadium's iconic covered grandstands was constructed in 1950, adding 15,000 seats to the south side. Several thousand additional seats were added in 1968.

In 1987, 13,000 seats were added with the construction of the north grandstand. Similar to the south stand, this structure included a cantilevered steel roof covering a portion of the lower seats. The project made headlines on February 25, 1987, when the grandstand collapsed during construction as a result of miscommunication between the workers and the contractor, which led to the premature removal during the intended replacement of several support cables. Although there were no casualties, property damage ranged from $500,000 to $1 million and resulted in setbacks; however, the stadium addition was completed in time for the start of the 1987 Husky football season.

Husky Stadium was a primary venue for the 1990 Goodwill Games, where the crowd saw an address by former President Ronald Reagan, as well as an address by Arnold Schwarzenegger, and a performance by the Moody Blues & Gorky Park. The stadium hosted the opening and closing ceremonies, as well as the track & field competition.

Husky Stadium was the temporary home of the Seattle Seahawks for five games (two preseason and three regular season) in 1994 while the Kingdome was temporarily closed for repairs to its damaged roof. After the demolition of the Kingdome in March 2000, the Seahawks played at Husky Stadium for the 2000 and 2001 seasons before moving into Seahawks Stadium (now Lumen Field) in 2002.

The playing field at Husky Stadium was originally dirt, which was then replaced with natural grass in 1938.[18] In 1968, Washington became one of the first major college teams to play on AstroTurf at home; at the time, the Houston Astrodome, Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee, and Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Wisconsin, were the only other major facilities with artificial turf. The AstroTurf field was replaced in 1972, 1977, 1987, and 1995.[19] FieldTurf, a new variation of synthetic turf, was installed in 2000 at a cost of $1,074,958. The new turf features enhanced drainage and reduced abrasion through the use of synthetic fibers that are tufted into an infill of sand and rubber. The project was funded by Seattle Seahawks owner Paul Allen, who used Husky Stadium as a temporary home venue during the construction of CenturyLink Field. The first of its kind in the NFL, the surface was so popular with the players that the Seahawks, who had planned to use natural grass at their new stadium, instead installed their own FieldTurf surface.[20] The FieldTurf at Husky Stadium was replaced with a newer one after nine seasons in 2009 at a cost of $350,000.[21]

In addition to the new playing surface, the Seahawks made other improvements to Husky stadium in preparation for its tenure as an NFL venue for two seasons. A larger scoreboard debuted in 1998, with a 23-by-42-foot (7.0 m × 12.8 m) "HuskyTron" video screen. Improved lighting for television, including corner lights, was added in 1999, and official NFL goalposts (optic yellow, 40 ft (12.2 m) in height) were installed in 2000.

The Husky Stadium end zones were painted gold during the 1980s and early 1990s; the new AstroTurf in 1995 changed them to purple. They became natural green with the installation of FieldTurf in 2000, which lasted until 2009 when they reverted to gold for one season. Purple end zones returned prior to the 2010 season, and were temporarily painted black for the Huskies' first "blackout" game against UCLA on November 18.

On September 3, 2015, Alaska Airlines purchased naming rights to the field, which changed its official name to "Alaska Airlines Field at Husky Stadium." The agreement, worth $41 million over 10 years, became the largest of its kind in college athletics.

The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) will hold the Washington state championship games for hgh school football, called the Gridiron Classic, at Husky Stadium on a trial basis in December 2023. Announced by the WIAA in June, it will mark the return of the annual games to Seattle, which last hosted them at the Kingdome in 1994; the university granted significantly discounted venue fees for the WIAA, with the latter hoping for a long-term agreement if the games are successfully held. The games were previously rotated among three Pierce County high school venues after the WIAA elected to move them out of the Tacoma Dome in 2019 amid rising costs and impaired sight lines from the latter's 2018 renovations.