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FirstBank Stadium has been used by Vanderbilt since 1922; it replaced Dudley Field I (later renamed Curry Field).

Overall, NC State had a record of 0-1 at this field, losing the sole non-conference game they played there.

  * Non-conference games

Concern had long existed among Vanderbilt athletics that their on-campus Dudley Field I, which opened in 1892, was too small, and was at risk of encroachment by college buildings. In fact, the school took methods to resolve this as early as 1906, when an 11-acre lot was purchased between 25th and 27th Avenues to the east and west, and West End and Highland Avenues to the north and south. Despite early plans to transition college athletics to those grounds, the move was delayed for reasons that remain somewhat unclear [1].

The property remained in the hands of Vanderbilt's Athletic Association when, in late 1921, moves towards providing the Commodores with an improved home field found a new stride. Through an aggressive fundraising campaign, the school was able to raise over $150,000 (over $2.7 million in 2025) in capital through a combination of public and private funding for the project. Work began in mid-February with plans to finish by September 15th, though construction delays forced the Commodores to play their first two games at old Curry Field [2].

Despite being a stadium by every quantifiable metric, Vanderbilt officials elected to retain the name Dudley Field, noting the "less pretentious and more modest" nature of the moniker. The new structure, encircled by a track, opened with 20,000 seats in a horseshoe shape open at the north; that end held the Walter O. Parmer Field House, a brick structure named for a Nashville businessman and philanthropist. The first structure in the south built solely for football, the venue was dedicated on October 14th, 1922 in a scoreless agame against Michigan to a crowd of sixteen thousand [3].

The Gold and Black held off on major improvements to the stadium for a while, instead constructing additional practice fields on the land surrounding new Dudley Field, with work on the future McGugin Field coming in 1924, and additional practice fields following in 1929-1931; this era also marked the revision of Dudley Field's running track, since the old one was not a regulation quarter mile track. And after being teased for nearly a decade, a new press box finally came in the midst of the 1938 season, replacing the open-air, single story unit with a two story, glass-enclosed unit. A public address (PA) system and new scoreboard were also installed [4].

Though temporary stands had been added to the north side of the stadium as early as 1930, permanent enlargements were delayed until 1949, when 5,500 steel seats were added to the west side of the stadium -- the new addition was modeled after the brand-new Ladd-Peebles Stadium. At the same time an expansion of the east side was considered, but ultimately delayed until a later date. Because the existing press box would have blocked the view of some of these seats, it was demolished and substituted by an out-of-the-way triple-decker affair. In 1954, the stadium was equipped with permanent lighting, with $20,000 (just over $240,000 in 2025) towards the project donated by an organization associated with the Billy Graham Crusade, noting that the price was less than the rental of temporary lights and the venue rental fees which Vanderbilt had waived. The lights were built on towers outside of the field so as not to block the view, and augmented with additional lights in 1957, 1963, and 1967 [5].

In 1958, a new electric scoreboard was installed, and in 1960, the eastern field was finally developed; the 6,300 new seats put capacity up to 34,000 total capacity. The school installed an AstroTurf field in 1970; at the same time, the old cinder track which encircled the field was removed with plans to construct a dedicated plant, though actual work was delayed after legal challenges forced a hold on work; the men's track program was put on hold in 1973, never to be revived, though a meager complex was built in 1980. In the same 1970 offseason, a new scoreboard was installed once again, with another installed in 1979 [6].

While the scoreboard was replaced often, hold were continued expansions to the stadium, with the Nashville team facing pressure from their Southeastern Conference counterparts to increase attendance, with some teams' venues nearly doubling the capacity of the Commodores' plant. In preparation for more major work to be ready by the following season, 2,000 seats were added to the north endzone, supplementing the few thousand wooden seats which had become fairly permanent since the 1950s. The phase of work drew some mockery from local fans after a portion of the western steel bleachers where the future press box would go were left unimproved and a new artificial turf was installed that did not quite reach the edges of the stadium.

Then, in November 1980, construction started on a revised bowl. The old concrete bleachers were torn away while the steel structures on each side of the field were raised several feet into the air and prepped to receive a new lower bowl. Work was completed on schedule, with the new stadium hosting a full complement of 41,000 spectators for the Commodores' second home game of the season versus Alabama. The new plant was renamed Vanderbilt Stadium (though the playing surface continued to honor Dudley), while the press box was named in honor of Fred Russell, a retired newspaperman who raised $250,000 (just under $900,000 in 2025) for the new writers' coop. New lighting was installed before the 1983 season to help with lighting during night broadcasts [7].

In 1998, the stadium received a new tenant, as well as a new jumbotron north endzone. The new tenant was the Oilers (now the Titans), who spent a single season on the collegiate grid while Nissan Stadium remained under construction. Commenting on the timing of the construction, Vanderbilt athletics director Todd Turner explained that "We're doing some things to make the stadium look good, but we were probably were going to do that anyway." The following season, the synthetic turf was removed in favor of natural grass for the first time in three decades. And after the 2002 season, the north endzone bleachers were removed and replaced with concessions, dropping capacity to 39,773 persons [8].

In 2012, a series of largely aesthetic renovations took place, converting the grounds back to synthetic turf, replacing the video board oncemore, and installing a roughly 450-seat, first-come, first-served grass berm in the north endzone; this work pushed capacity to 40,350 persons. In 2014, new lights were installed. Once again, though, Vanderbilt's stadium was seen as lackluster when compared to its SEC peers; college leaders even considering opening an off-campus stadium to remedy the situation. Instead, a new revitalization program was launched, with the stadium being christened FirstBank Stadium. After a season of reduced capacity (28,500) in 2023 due to construction in both endzones, a portion of the premium north endzone seating (mostly a bar-style lounge) opened in 2024, giving the venue 28,934 seats. In 2025, completed premium seating at both endzones gave the plant a revamped capacity of 35,000 seats. Further expansion is likely to be limited due to the tight nature of the stadium's on-campus layout [9].

Pictures of FirstBank Stadium