Fran Rish Stadium is a football/track stadium in the

northwest The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sep ...

United States, located adjacent to the campus of Richland High School in

Richland, Washington Richland () is a city in Benton County, Washington, United States. It is located in southeastern Washington at the confluence of the Yakima and the Columbia Rivers. As of the 2020 census, the city's population was 60,560. Along with the nearby c ...

. Long known as the "Bomber Bowl", it is the home field for the

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

teams of the city's two high schools, the Richland Bombers and the Hanford Falcons, although the Falcons have a separate

track Track or Tracks may refer to: Routes or imprints * Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity * Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across * Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...

facility at their high school. Neither school uses the stadium for

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

matches (Bomber Field, Richland High's

field, is located near Carmichael Middle School, which is located across the street from Fran Rish stadium, on Thayer Drive, but the school's grounds carry down the back of the school all the way to Wellsian Way. Hanford's

team plays on their school grounds). But, on May 14, 2021 the girls “Richland Hanford” combined school Lacrosse team, established at the beginning of the 2020 pandemic, played the first non-football/track game at the stadium. Followed shortly by both Richland and Hanford boys Lacrosse. In 1983, the stadium was named after longtime RHS football and baseball coach Fran Rish (1919–2006). The field is surrounded by a ten-lane running track and has a conventional north-south alignment, at an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...

of approximately above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...

. The stadium was renovated in 1986, following a voter-approved bond issue; the main grandstand and press box was moved to the east sideline, and the west sideline became the visiting bleachers. The original announcer's booth became a spotter's nest, for both home and visiting teams. The stadium completed another renovation in 2015; the old bleachers and spotter's nest from 1954 on the west sideline were replaced. One aspect caused controversy – the demolition of the 'R' and 'H' letters that flanked the old bleachers in early 2014. The large concrete letters returned in August 2015. The RHS

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

field, adjacent to the northeast, hosted

minor league Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in Nor ...

baseball for four summers (1983–86) as the home field of the

Tri-Cities Triplets The Triple-Cities Triplets were a minor league baseball team in the northwest United States, located in Richland, Washington, one of the Tri-Cities. The Triplets were members of the Class A short-season Northwest League for four seasons, from 1 ...

of the

Class A-Short Season Class A Short Season (officially Short-Season A) was a level of play in Minor League Baseball in the United States from 1965 through 2020. In the hierarchy of minor league classifications, it was below Triple-A, Double-A, Class A-Advanced (cre ...

Northwest League The Northwest League is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Pacific Northwest, Northwestern United States and Western Canada. A Class A Short Season league for most of its history, the league was promoted to High-A as part of Maj ...

. The team was sold, moved to

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...

, and became the

Boise Hawks The Boise Hawks are an independent baseball team of the Pioneer League, which is not affiliated with Major League Baseball (MLB) but is an MLB Partner League. Home games are played at Memorial Stadium in Garden City, Idaho, a small city surround ...

in 1987. The current NWL team for the area, the

Tri-City Dust Devils The Tri-City Dust Devils are a Minor League Baseball team in the northwest United States, based in Pasco, Washington. The Dust Devils are members of the Northwest League and are affiliated with the Los Angeles Angels. Tri-City plays their home gam ...

, arrived in 2001 from

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

and play in Pasco at

Gesa Stadium Gesa Stadium (formerly Dust Devils Stadium) is a Minor League Baseball park in the northwest United States, located in Pasco, Washington. Opened in 1995, it is the home field of the Tri-City Dust Devils of the High-A West. History The venue ...

References

External links

Richland Bombers football
– Fran Rish Stadium

– Fran Rish Stadium safety upgrades Sports venues in Washington (state) Buildings and structures in Benton County, Washington High school sports in Washington (state) Sports in the Tri-Cities, Washington {{Washington-stadium-stub