Brooks Stadium is a 21,000-seat

multi-purpose stadium A multi-purpose stadium is a type of stadium designed to be easily used by multiple types of events. While any stadium could potentially host more than one type of sport or event, this concept usually refers to a specific design philosophy tha ...

Conway, South Carolina Conway is a city in Horry County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 24,849 at the 2020 census, up from 17,103 in 2010 census. It is the county seat of Horry County and is part of the Myrtle Beach metropolitan area. It is the home ...

. It is home to the

Coastal Carolina Chanticleers football The Coastal Carolina Chanticleers football team represents Coastal Carolina University in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision level. The Chanticleers are members of the Sun Belt Conference, fielding its teams at th ...

team at

Coastal Carolina University Coastal Carolina University (CCU or Coastal) is a public university in Conway, South Carolina. Founded in 1954 as Coastal Carolina Junior College, and later joining the University of South Carolina System as USC Coastal Carolina, it became an in ...

. The facility opened in 2003 and is named in honor of Coby Garrett Brooks and Boni Belle Brooks, children of

Robert Brooks Robert Darren Brooks (born June 23, 1970) is a former American football wide receiver who attended University of South Carolina and played for the Green Bay Packers (1992–1998) and the Denver Broncos. Biography Early life Brooks sta ...

. Brooks was a

Loris, South Carolina Loris is a city in Horry County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 2,396 at the 2010 census, up from 2,079 in 2000. Geography Loris is in northern Horry County on the Atlantic coastal plain. U.S. Route 701 passes through the city, ...

native and was the chairman of Hooters of America, Inc. The stadium is notable for its teal

artificial turf Artificial turf is a surface of synthetic fibers made to look like natural grass. It is most often used in arenas for sports that were originally or are normally played on grass. However, it is now being used on residential lawns and commer ...

History and renovation

While the current stadium dates only to 2003, the site has a considerably longer football history. In a 2020 interview, Coastal athletic director Matt Hogue, who began working at the school in 1997 as Coastal's

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

play-by-play announcer, told

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journalist

Ryan McGee Ryan McGee is a senior writer for ''ESPN The Magazine'' and formerly a television producer with ESPN, Fox Sports Net, and NASCAR Media Group. He covers a variety of American sports, but is best known for his motorsports work, particularly NASCAR, ...

, Groundbreaking for Brooks Stadium was held on July 30, 2002. Phase I of the stadium construction contained 6,408 seats, while the foundation and infrastructure of the stadium was designed to support future expansion to 20,000 seats. The stadium was formally dedicated on September 6, 2003, as the Chanticleer football team opened its inaugural game vs. Newberry College in front of a crowd of more than 8,000. On October 7, 2006, the field was named James C. Benton Field to honor the family for a large donation they made to the Coastal athletics program earlier in the year.

2017–19 expansion

Following the announcement of the university joining the

Sun Belt Conference The Sun Belt Conference (SBC) is a collegiate athletic conference that has been affiliated with the NCAA's Division I since 1976. Originally a non-football conference, the Sun Belt began sponsoring football in 2001. Its football teams participa ...

on September 1, 2015, Brooks Stadium underwent construction to expand the stadium to 20,000 seats. The NCAA requires FBS programs to maintain an average attendance of at least 15,000 over a rolling two-year cycle. The expansion project received approval from the state in November 2015, but construction was not expected to begin until January 2017.

officials set the project price tag at $38 million. The committee also announced in February 2017 the lead architects for the expansion were Heery International, Inc.

architectural Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings o ...

firm and Stubbs Muldrow Herin architects
McKnight Construction Company
was awarded the project, and groundbreaking took place on March 21, 2017. Construction took place over two phases; the first phase expanded the stadium to the FBS-minimum 15,000 seats by expanding the sidelines and connecting them to the north end zone as well as expanding the press box side upper deck. It was completed in time for Coastal Carolina's season opener against UMass on September 2, 2017. Construction of phase II began in January 2018, and further expanded capacity to over 20,000 seats by adding premium seating and an upper deck to the west side. Phase II was finished in August 2019.

Marrio & Josh Norman Fieldhouse

The $8.5 million fieldhouse opened at Brooks Stadium in June 2010. It was originally named for brothers Mark and Will Adkins (Coastal Carolina '89), who planned to donate $1.5 million to the project. The fieldhouse added 1,600 seats. On November 3, 2018, it was announced that

Josh Norman Joshua Ricardo Norman (born December 15, 1987) is an American football cornerback who is a free agent. He played college football at Coastal Carolina and was drafted by the Panthers in the fifth round of the 2012 NFL Draft, and has also played f ...

had donated a large amount of money to the athletic department and the Adkins Fieldhouse name changed to Marrio & Josh Norman Fieldhouse. The Marrio & Josh Norman Fieldhouse also includes houses: * Football offices, meeting rooms, and football locker room * Strength & conditioning center for all student-athletes * Men's and women's cross country and track & field offices * Men's and women's soccer offices * Men's and women's golf offices * Men's tennis office * Baseball office * Softball office * Sasser Athletic Hall of Fame

Attendance records

References

External links