Fifth Third Bank Stadium, known as Kennesaw State University Stadium until 2013, is a stadium near

Kennesaw, Georgia Kennesaw is a suburban city northwest of Atlanta in Cobb County, Georgia, United States, located within the greater Atlanta metropolitan area. Known from its original settlement in the 1830s until 1887 as Big Shanty, it became Kennesaw under its ...

, that is primarily used as the home for the Kennesaw State Owls football team as well as the KSU women's soccer and women's lacrosse teams. It was built as a soccer-specific stadium and opened May 2, 2010, with the first match played on May 9. The facility is the result of a public-private partnership between

Kennesaw State University Kennesaw State University (KSU) is a public research university located in the state of Georgia with two different campuses in the Atlanta metropolitan area, one in Kennesaw and the other in Marietta on a combined of land. The school was fo ...

and the now-defunct Atlanta Beat of Women's Professional Soccer. The stadium's seating capacity is 8,318. It has a stage at one end to facilitate concerts and can hold up to 16,316 for that purpose.

Stadium

The bowl-shaped stadium –– built on of land east of the Chastain Road exit off of Interstate 75, about a mile from Kennesaw State’s main campus –– is the latest addition to the KSU Sports & Entertainment Park, which opened in fall 2009 to expand the university’s facilities for intramural and club sports. The stadium will help showcase varsity athletics at KSU, which recently completed its transition into

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athleti ...

. The on which the stadium sits is part of acquired for the university by the KSU Foundation in 2008 and 2009, which now are being developed into athletics facilities for the university’s growing student population. The remaining area around the new stadium has been developed into soccer fields, intramural fields, a rugby field, and a track and nearly of nature and hiking trails.

Football

In September 2010, KSU announced that it planned to launch a football program at the

Division I FCS The NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), formerly known as Division I-AA, is the second-highest level of college football in the United States, after the Football Bowl Subdivision. Sponsored by the National Collegiate Athlet ...

level in 2014, and would use the stadium as its home field. On February 14, KSU announced that the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia approved the University’s request to add football to its 17-sport NCAA Division I intercollegiate athletics program. On September 12, 2015, Kennesaw State played their first home football game at Fifth Third Bank Stadium with 9,506 in attendance, defeating the Edward Waters Tigers, 58-7.

Soccer

The facility was home to the Atlanta Beat in 2010 and 2011, and hosted the 2010 WPS All-Star Game on June 30. Pro soccer returned when Atlanta United 2 of the

USL Championship The USL Championship (USLC) is a professional men's soccer league in the United States that began its inaugural season in 2011. The USL is sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation (U.S. Soccer) as a Division II league since 2017, p ...

moved to the stadium for the 2019 season. The stadium hosted a 2019 CONCACAF Champions League match where Atlanta United FC defeated C.S. Herediano 4–0 on February 28, 2019, and a

U.S. Open Cup The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, commonly known as the U.S. Open Cup (USOC), is a Single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in men's Soccer in the United States, soccer in the United States of America. It is the oldest ongoing nati ...

match between Atlanta United and Chattanooga FC on April 20, 2022, which Atlanta won 6–0. Atlanta United have won all eight of the matches the team has played at the stadium.

Rugby

The stadium hosted a round of the

2013–14 IRB Women's Sevens World Series The 2013–14 IRB Women's Sevens World Series was the second edition of the IRB Women's Sevens World Series, organized by the IRB annual series of tournaments for women's national teams in rugby sevens. In August 2013, the IRB announced that the ...

on February 15–16, 2014. The second half of a home-and-home series of rugby matches between the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

and

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

as part of the qualification for the 2015 Rugby World Cup in England, was played here on March 29, 2014. The United States won the match 32–13 to win the qualification spot on a two-match aggregate of 59–40. The stadium hosted the

when they played

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to t ...

on June 17, 2017. The Eagles lost to Georgia 17–21.

USA Eagles Internationals

''USA scores displayed first.''

Renovation and renaming

Through a multimillion-dollar, multi-year sponsorship agreement with the Fifth Third Bank's Georgia regional office, KSU Stadium was renamed Fifth Third Bank Stadium with the addition of Division I football in February 2013. Campus facility plans in 2016 suggested expanding the stadium's capacity, but as of June 2018, Kennesaw State University had not funded the plan.

Attendance records

References

List of NCAA Division I FCS football stadiums The following is a list of current National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) College football, football stadiums in the United States. Conference affili ...

Notes and references

External links

New Soccer Stadium

Stadium information
from Atlanta Beat
Football team announcement
{{coord, 34.028967, -84.567626, display=t, type:landmark College football venues College lacrosse venues in the United States College soccer venues in the United States Atlanta Beat (WPS) Kennesaw State Owls football Major League Lacrosse venues Premier Lacrosse League venues Rugby union stadiums in the United States USL Championship stadiums Women's Professional Soccer stadiums Lacrosse venues in the United States American football venues in Georgia (U.S. state) Soccer venues in Georgia (U.S. state) Buildings and structures in Cobb County, Georgia 2010 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state)