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Stanford Stadium has served as the home field for the Stanford Cardinal since opening in 1921; it replaced their usage of Stanford Field.

  * Non-conference games

Though they have long been one of the premiere west-cost schools in athletics, football has not always been the primary interest of Stanford's sports program. A strong start under the leadership of famed coach Walter Camp put the Cardinal on a fast-track to early gridiron glory, and they remained one of California's best teams right up until 1906, when both Stanford and their rival Cal Golden Bears prohibited the sport in favor of rugby due to its violent nature. As such, the school's first athletic field, Stanford Field, was predominantly use for ruby matches during much of its life.

That changed in 1919, when Stanford (five years after their rival) revived their program. Thanks in part to their continued relations in the 15-man game, when football hostilities between Cal and Stanford resumed, they were instantly a hit, selling out early and often. The seating capacity of both schools was found to be severely below that of demand from spectators, so both began planning for new stadiums: in Berkeley, they opened California Memorial Stadium in 1923, two years behind Palo Alto's answer: Stanford Stadium.

Part of the reason for the speed on "The Farm" was the method of construction chosen by Stanford officials: rather than concrete stadium planned by their brothers across the bay, Stanford opted for a simpler approach: they would dig an earthen bowl out of the ground in a fitting area of campus, install good drainage at the field level, and landscape the divot so as to prevent erosion. This strategy saved Stanford's athletic department considerable time and money, allowing for their stadium to be built in just under six months instead of the year-and-a-half timeline in Berkeley. The new venue would host football, rugby, and track events.

After preliminary plans were approved in early October 1920, work started on the $210,000 (just under $4 million in 2026) plant in late May. To further save on time and materials, salvageable bleachers were brought over from the old field and installed in the bowl -- despite the fact it had long been understood that the field wouldn't be ready until November 1st at the earliest. With early season games hosted at the now mostly-bleacherless Stanford Field, the new stadium was left in pristine condition for the dedicatory Big Game against Cal. The 60,000-seat venue was so large, Cardinal officials had to construct the scoreboard 45-feet tall so visitors on the far side of the horseshoe-shaped stadium could read it [1].

Having just built the second largest athletic stadium in the United States, most universities would be content to rest on their laurels. Instead, Stanford added another 10,200 seats in 1925 (for 70,200 total spots), creating a partial curl on the open south end of the horseshoe. Two years later, another 16,500 spots were added (for 86,700 total spots) to the top of the bowl as a part of an effort to make a Greco-Roman arcade around the exterior of the plant. Including standing room for about 5,000, crowds over 89,000 persons often shoved together to watch the Cardinal play. In 1931, a new scoreboard was installed, and in 1932, the university replaced all the original, 1921-era seats (but not subsequent additions), installing new galvanized steel and concrete bases; 1,000 new bleachers were also installed along the wall in the infield, where the track used to be; field sports were relocated to the cosier confines of Angell Field. With the work, the seats were renumbered, pushing seated capacity to 89,400 [2].

Despite conintued success under the likes of Pop Warner and Clark Shaughnessy (if only briefly), interest in expansion cooled over the next few decades, focusing instead on improving the seating they already had. One such example was in February 1941, when about 15,000 "hastily built" seats atop the stadium (likely those added in 1927) were replaced; in 1954, the university began a similar multi-year effort to gradually replace all the seating. A move popular with newspapermen was made in 1960, when the long-detested original press box was demolished and replaced with a new, state-of-the-art three-story. In 1967, a new electric scoreboard was installed, while one was added to the north in 1978 and replaced again in 1986.

The 1960s and '70s brought along a gradual decline in the reported capacity of the stadium. If any infield bleachers (installed 1932) were still extant, they were lost in 1969 when a new 6-lane rubberized track returned to the confines of the bowl -- reportedly, because their old base of operations, Angell Field, had become overrun with joggers. An article on the work commented on the oft-changing numbers of seats given by press reporters, noting that the officialy number was 87,206 and that the construction of the press box nearly a decade earlier had sacrified several seats. Another several hundred seats were lost in 1973 in the process of adding two new access tunnels; the new number was 86,352, though the reporter morosely noted that the stadium "hadn't been sold out in years." The culprit? "Too many bad seats" [3] [4].

For reasons I can't determine, capacity seems to have dropped to 85,000 (or, more particularly, 84,892) in 1978 -- possibly, this was when the "unsafe" 68th row, the highest level of the stadium, was closed. In 1985, though, the stadium got a shot in the arm: it became the host site of Super Bowl XIX. While most of the changes made to the stadium in preparation for the event were short-lived in nature -- temporary lights, speakers, and a couple portable DiamondVision replay screens were brought in for the game -- long-term changes included renovations to the press box, locker rooms, and restrooms, as well as the recreation of an 86th row, adding 1,500 seats for 86,019 total persons.

Major renovations came in 1994 when Stanford Stadium was selected as a host site for the United States' FIFA series; changes included replacing the wooden seats with aluminum ones, improvements to the press box, locker rooms, restrooms, and concourses, installation of (yet another) temporary DiamondVision screen, and a significant reduction in the field's 16" crown. Thanks to a related $10 million (about $22 million in 2026) donation by Stanford graduate Louis W. Foster, the playing surface was named Louis W. Foster Family Field ahead of the 1994 season. The final improvement of note to this iteration of the stadium was the installation of lights before the 2001 season, paid for almost entirely by Pac-10 TV partner Fox Sports Network, who was tired of footing the bill for temporary lights when they wanted to host night games [5] [6].

Despite its iconic beauty and near-century of service, Stanford football had a problem with their long-time stadium: it was way too big. The dwindling fan interest referenced in the 1970s had not improved. On top of that, the precipitous descent to the lowest seats of the bowl was problematic for a base of viewers which was, on average, not getting any younger. Finally, as wide receiver Evan Moore said "I don't think we ever really had a home-field advantage" in the stadium. Though poised as a remodel of the old bowl, it was really more of a demolition: "We didn't know whether to call it a new stadium or a renovation," admitted athletic director Ted Leland. "We're destroying all the seats and the press box."

Demolition work started immediately following Stanford's final game of the 2005 season, an instant-classic 31-38 thriller against number 6-ranked Notre Dame. The old plant was torn down to the studs. Rather than making an homage to the iconic curled horseshoe shape of the old bowl, the new stadium was a double-decked rectangular shape, done to help bring fans closer to the action and to lower the distance to amenities. Every bit of the 50,026 stadium was brand new except the playing surface -- and they even toyed with the idea of replacing the grass with synthetic stuff. Though some bemoaned the loss of the stadium's rich traditions, as former track coach Payton Jordan put it, "You can't sit on tradition alone. You've got to keep improving."

In a feat of construction planning comparable only to the whirlwind-speed opening of the original stadium, the venue was completed in time for the 2006 season to continue unabated, holding its first action on September 16th when the Navy traveled to the far coast. At a cost of $90 million (about $145 million in 2026), it was hoped the investment would pay off. The football team had nothing but good things to say about it, and results have proven it a prudent decision: since the renovation, the average Stanford home game has attracted just over 40,000 fans and has accumulated a 74-47 record as of the end of the 2025 season. The reported capacity has increased twice since its 2006 opening, rising to 50,360 in 2011 and 50,424 just two years later. The scoreboards were revised in the latter season [7].

Pictures of Stanford Stadium