Stadium Size

[NWebster]

Sure I could research this, butbwhen is the last time an NFL team played in a stadium as small as the Chargers will this year?

[ChrisBabcock]

My first thought was those very Chargers home from a half century ago, Balboa Stadium. I remember reading that it was fairly tiny. A wikipedia check tells me 34,000 capacity for Balboa and 30,000 for Stubhub. So I guess we need to go back even further. My next thought was the 1952 Texans "home" at the Rubber Bowl in Akron.... but that has a capacity of 35,000.

[JohnR]

Youell Field, Oakland. Wiki says it seated 22,000.

[rhickok1109]

The original City Stadium in Green Bay seated 25,000. The Packers played there from 1925 through 1956.

[NWebster]

Original City Stadium was what immediately came to mind, but thank you John, wouldn't have come up with Youll unaided.

[Saban1]

Nickerson Field in Boston.
Capacity 10,412
Formerly home of the baseball Boston Braves and the Boston Patriots (1960-62).

[rhickok1109]

Nickerson Field in Boston.
Capacity 10,412
Formerly home of the baseball Boston Braves and the Boston Patriots (1960-62).

That's the current capacity, but it was somewhere around 30,000 when the Patriots played there.

[BD Sullivan]

During the last weeks of the 1985 Los Angeles Express season in the USFL, they played a home game at John Shephard Stadium on the campus of Los Angeles Pierce College. They were able to get the capacity increased to 16,000 for the game--yet still only drew 8,200.

[MarbleEye]

Sure I could research this, butbwhen is the last time an NFL team played in a stadium as small as the Chargers will this year?

I know the OP specified "an NFL team" but I was thinking some of the WFL teams of 1974 and 1975 must have played some games in very tiny stadia.... Does anyone know the truth of that? I was thinking the Detroit Wheels actually played in Ypsilanti and in a small stadium during their brief existence and there must be a few others too.

EDIT: This from Wikipedia:
"Only 10,631 people attended their first home game, and their final home contest drew an announced crowd of 6,351 fans (though actual attendance was closer to 2,000). One home game, against the Portland Storm, was moved to J.W. Little Stadium*** in London, Ontario; Storm owner Robert Harris was from London, and actually considered moving his club to the Ontario city and renaming them the London Lords (adopting the name of the recently-folded semi-pro team of that name), although the Canadian government, which had threatened to pass the Canadian Football Act a few months prior, was firmly against the WFL or any other American league playing in Canada. Harris received $30,000 from local promoters and the Storm got their first win of the year, 18-7, in front an announced crowd of 5,105 (newspaper reports indicated there were only 2,000 people there). It was the only "World" Football League game played outside the United States."

***I couldn't find anything readily about J.W. Little Stadium. It was replaced by TD Waterhouse Stadium which only seats 10,000 in it's regular configuration, so I imagine that J.W. Little Stadium had to have been very small. There is no Wiki entry or any other info readily available about J.W. Little Stadium in a quick search. (I did find a reference to this field on a WFL site that mentioned the Wheels-Portland Storm game that was played there, that stated capacity was 20,000. I don't know if that's accurate, the picture looks like a smaller stadium to me.)

Here is a link to a picture of J.W. Little Stadium in 1933 (built in 1929) and it looks very small to me. https://wathappened2dayinhistory.wordpr ... ag/london/


Capacity history of Rynearson Stadium in Ypsilanti:
30,200 (1992-present)
22,227 (1974-1991)**
15,500 (1969-1973)

** When the Wheels played there. The Wheels also added the first night game lights to the stadium and they remain to this day, per Wiki.

[Andrew McKillop]

In 1967 the Broncos and Raiders played a preseason game at a high school stadium in North Platte, Nebraska. It was reported that only 10,046 seats were available, with only 6,500 people showing up for the game.

The Sacramento Surge (Hughes Stadium, Hornet Field) and San Antonio Riders (Alamo Stadium, Bobcat Stadium) of the WLAF played in smallish stadiums of around 20,000 capacity. The 1998 England Monarchs of NFL Europe hosted a game at Alexander Stadium in Birmingham, England, with a capacity of a little over 10,000.

The Virginia Destroyers of the UFL set an attendance record at the Virginia Beach Sportsplex with a capacity crowd of 14,000 for the league's championship game.