Kinnick Stadium Tickets

Kinnick Stadium
Kinnick Stadium is situated in Iowa City a city in Johnson County of Iowa named as the second Best Small Metropolitan Area for doing business in the United States In 2008 edition of Forbes Magazine.

In United States" oldest Division I college athletic conference known as the Big Ten Conference Kinnick Stadium was taken as the sixth largest stadium and generally it is ranked as one of the 20 largest college-owned stadiums in United States.

It is owned and operated by University of Iowa while it opened on October 5, 1929 to public with a game against Monmouth College which was won by Iowa by 46-0.

The construction of the stadium was completed in seven months with the initial construction cost of $497,151.42. The current seating capacity of the stadium is 70,585 which were previously accounted as 53,000 and 70,397 seats in the previous renovations of 1956, 1983 and 1990. Kinnick stadium is home of Iowa Hawkeyes (NCAA) being the tenants since the opening of the stadium.

The former name of the stadium was Iowa Stadium. But in the spring of 1972, the Iowa Athletic Board voted to rename the stadium in honor of the school"s only Heisman Trophy winner Nile Kinnick, Jr. who was one of just five football players inducted into the Iowa Sports Hall of Fame in the Hall's inaugural year in 1951 and died in his service during World War II.

The Hawkeyes" first home game that year was with Oregon State, and a pre-game ceremony on September 23 made it official: Iowa Stadium became known as Kinnick Stadium.

Ever since the coin flipped at the start of every Big Ten football game bears his image, and each captain of a Big Ten team receives one such coin at the end of the year.

An $89 million renovation project of Kinnick Stadium was completed in August 2006. That two-year project resulted in a long-list of amendments that improved the game-day experience for everyone from the student-athletes and coaches on the playing field to the fans in the stands.

New scoreboards featuring state-of-the-art audio and video, new team locker rooms, increased concessions stands and restroom, a new press box with indoor and outdoor club seating, and private suites, and the creation of a main entrance and the construction of the Krause Family Plaza at the stadium's south were just some of the additions fans of the Hawkeyes now enjoy.

Apart from that the renovation also included a school dedicated 14 foot bronze statue of Nile Kinnick Jr. in front of the stadium and later on a 9 foot by 16 foot bronze relief on the wall of the stadium, depicting Kinnick's 1939 game-winning touchdown run against Notre Dame.

Another interesting feature of Kinnick Stadium is its pink visitors' locker rooms; a tradition put forth by Iowa coach Hayden Fry with the view that pink colour suppresses aggressive and hostile behavior.

Thus the visitors" locker room was coloured in pink to create a calming effect on opposing teams. This tradition has been continued with the newly renovated locker rooms.