The City of Miami, with a then population of 150,000, entered into a contract on July 30, 1936 for the building of a football stadium. The stadium was completed in mid-1937 at a total cost of $340,000. The stadium initially was named after one of Miami’s oldest pioneers, Roddy Burdine, before becoming Orange Bowl Stadium in 1959.

Dedication

December 10, 1937, during the Miami-Georgia football game. The Hurricanes lost, 26-0. The seating capacity was 22,000.

Surface

Prescription Athletic Turf (Natural Grass) Transition from artificial was made in 1977.

Press Box

The fifth floor level can accommodate 92 writers plus the scoreboard, public address and statistics crews. Live television and radio broadcast crews are assigned to the third floor. Television and photo news crews have access to the roof of the press box, which is also used for overflow media seating. The fourth and sixth floors are VIP seating and hospitality areas. Use the South Central Plaza, for press will call and entrance to the press box.

Expansion

The original stadium, with a seating capacity of 23,330, soon outgrew itself and in 1944 stands were added to the endzones bring capacity to 35,030. In 1947 a second expansion added an additional 24,548 seats. Following expansions in 1950 (4,974 seats), ‘53 (2,577) and ‘55 (9,157) double-decking and construction of the wings were completed. The west end zone was filled in and both the upper and lower deck seats were added, raising capacity to 80,010. The east end zone seats were removed in 1977, reducing the capacity to 75,500. Expansion of the VIP seating and the addition of contour seats in the early 1990s reduced the capacity to 74,712. In 1994, completion of construction designed to improve handicap seating further reduced capacity. Renovations in 1996 to accommodate Olympic soccer reduced capacity to 72,319.

Home to Big Games

The Orange Bowl has hosted five Super Bowls, the most recent on January 21, 1979, when the Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Dallas Cowboys, 35-31, in Super Bowl XIII. Since 1970, when the collegiate national champion was first selected after the completion of the bowl games, the Orange Bowl Classic has hosted 11 games that decided the national title. Until the 1996 season when the OBC moved to Pro Player Stadium, Orange Bowl Stadium hosted eight of the last 13 national championship games, including University of Miami titles in 1983, 1987, and 1991.

Olympic Soccer

From July 20-28, 1996 the Orange Bowl served as a site for Olympic soccer.

Largest All-Time Home Crowd

The largest crowd to witness any event in the Orange Bowl was in 1995 when 81,753 watched Nebraska defeat Miami, 24-17, in the Orange Bowl Classic. Temporary bleachers were added to the east end zone to accommodate the overflow. The largest crowd for a professional football game in the Orange Bowl was 80,187 on January 18, 1976, to see the Pittsburgh Steelers defeat the Dallas Cowboys, 21-17, in Super Bowl X.

Not much is known yet as to the full extent of the redevelopment of the Miami Orange Bowl. This said, the process has begun, with new light towers being installed before the 2006 season, and a contractor, Jones Lang LaSalle, has been selected to manage and oversee the project. Word is that redevelopment shuold be completed before the 2009 Miami Hurricanes football season, and that, for the most part, the seasons during reconstruction will go on as planned (though some parking and seating arrangements might not be available).

Though not much is known about the project as a whole, representatives for the project have stated that there are no plans to do any work on the parking lot area of the stadium, despite plans to have a higher capactiy, and new press boxes.

1. Official Orange Bowl Stadium Site
2. FedEx Orange Bowl Site