Miami Orange Bowl
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The Miami Orange Bowl is a stadium in the City of Miami, Florida, west of Downtown in Little Havana. It is the home stadium for the University of Miami Hurricanes football team and the temporary home of the Florida International University Golden Panthers for the 2007 football season while the FIU Stadium undergoes expansion.
In the past, it also hosted the Miami Dolphins until the opening of Dolphin Stadium in 1987. The stadium was renamed in 1959 for the Orange Bowl Classic college football game, which was played at the Orange Bowl following every season from 1937 to 1995, although it has been played at Dolphin Stadium since 1996, save for the January 1999 contest between Florida and Syracuse. The Minor League Baseball Miami Marlins played certain games in the Orange Bowl from 1956 to 1960.
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[edit] History
The stadium was built by the City of Miami Public Works Department. Construction began in 1936 and was completed in December 1937. The stadium opened for Miami Hurricanes football on December 10, 1937. From 1926 to 1937 UM played in a stadium near Tamiami Park and also at Moore Park until the Orange Bowl (previously named Burdine Stadium) was built in 1937.
The Orange Bowl was originally named after Roddy Burdine, one of Miami's pioneers. The original stadium consisted of the two sideline lower decks. Seating was added in the endzones in the 1940s, and by the end of the 1950s the stadium was double-decked on the sidelines. The AFL expansion Miami Dolphins played their first regular season game ever in the stadium on September 2, 1966. The west endzone upper deck section was then added in the 1960s, bringing the stadium to its peak capacity of 80,010. In 1977 the permanent seats in the east endzone were removed, and further upgrades have brought the stadium to its current capacity and design. The city skyline can be seen to the east through the open end, over the modern scoreboard and palm trees. The surface has always been natural grass, except for a time in the 1970s. PolyTurf, an artificial turf similar to AstroTurf, was installed for the 1970 football season. It was removed and replaced with a type of natural grass known as Prescription Athletic Turf for the 1976 football season.
In addition to football, the stadium also hosts concerts and other public events. The stadium has a regular capacity of 72,319 orange seats, and can seat up to 82,000 for concerts and other events where additional seating can be placed on the playing field.
The City of Miami recently embarked on a plan to extensively renovate the stadium. However, those plans fell by the wayside as Miami focused on attempting to keep the Florida Marlins in-town, forcing the Hurricanes to threaten to move to Dolphin Stadium if a plan to renovate the stadium were not in place within 45 days. Some fear that Miami would permit the college to leave, only to tear down the Orange Bowl and replace it with the new stadium for the Marlins. [1]
[edit] Stadium events
The stadium has hosted several soccer matches in recent years, including Marlboro Soccer Cup, an AC Milan Soccer Game, CONCACAF Gold Cup matches, and some 1996 Summer Olympics soccer games. In 1987, an NWA Great American Bash wrestling supercard was held in the stadium. An exhibition Canadian Football League game was played in 1995 with the Birmingham Barracudas versus the Baltimore Stallions, the Stallions won 37-0, to judge if Miami could have supported an CFL team. The attendance was disappointing. The team would have been called the Miami Manatees.
The Orange Bowl is one of two stadiums to host five NFL Super Bowls (II, III, V, X and XIII). (The other is the Rose Bowl. The Louisiana Superdome has hosted the most Super Bowls, six.) The former college football all-star game, the North-South Shrine Game, was held there from 1948 to 1973, and the NFL Pro Bowl was held there in 1975.
The stadium has also has hosted many non-athletic events such as Monster Jam, car shows, and various concerts. Past performers include the Eagles, The Rolling Stones, Genesis, Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Pink Floyd, The Police, and Prince. Notably, Prince chose the stadium as the venue for the grand finale of his Purple Rain Tour in April 1985. [2] In honor of the occasion, the stadium was rechristened the "Purple Bowl."
In addition, the site was used for the Haiti national football team for their "home" matches due to violent flare-ups in Haiti resulting from political instability.
[edit] Hurricane Wilma
In 2005, Hurricane Wilma caused structural damage to the stadium which rekindled discussion of tearing down the aging facility. The damage has since been repaired. The Orange Bowl, however, was recently voted in an ESPN national online poll as the best stadium to play in.
