![Tony and Nancy Moye Football and Lacrosse Complex](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/Tony_and_Nancy_Moye_Football_and_Lacrosse_Complex.jpg)
The Tony and Nancy Moye Football and Lacrosse Complex (also known as Moye Complex, the stadium itself is officially named Five Star Stadium) is a 10,200 seat
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 ...
and
lacrosse
Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensively ...
stadium on the campus of
Mercer University
Mercer University is a private research university with its main campus in Macon, Georgia. Founded in 1833 as Mercer Institute and gaining university status in 1837, it is the oldest private university in the state and enrolls more than 9,000 ...
in
Macon, Georgia
Macon ( ), officially Macon–Bibb County, is a consolidated city-county in the U.S. state of Georgia. Situated near the fall line of the Ocmulgee River, it is located southeast of Atlanta and lies near the geographic center of the state of Geo ...
,
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 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. Construction began on November 12, 2011 and was completed in 2013; the
AstroTurf
AstroTurf is an American subsidiary of SportGroup that produces artificial turf for playing surfaces in sports. The original AstroTurf product was a short-pile synthetic turf invented in 1965 by Monsanto. Since the early 2000s, AstroTurf has m ...
3D Extreme surface was completed in 2012, the football team conducted its first practice in the stadium on August 27, 2012. The university initially announced the complex would have 6,000 seats; the number was increased to 10,200 in 2012. The first football game at Moye Complex was on August 31, 2013; Mercer defeated
Reinhardt University
Reinhardt University is a private university in Waleska, Georgia. The university has an off-campus center in Alpharetta and offers some programs in Cartersville, Marietta, and Canton, and online. Reinhardt is affiliated with the United Methodi ...
in front of an overflow crowd of 12,172 spectators.
The sports complex has the following components: the Homer and Ruth Drake Field House, the William H. Anderson II Family Field, the Marshall and Jane Butler Family Plaza, and the Tony and Nancy Moye Family Football and Lacrosse Complex. Messrs. Drake, Anderson, Butler, and Moye are university
trustees
Trustee (or the holding of a trusteeship) is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, is a synonym for anyone in a position of trust and so can refer to any individual who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility to t ...
and were major donors towards the stadium.
On February 26, 2015, the stadium portion of the complex was named Five Star Stadium in recognition of a multimillion-dollar financial commitment to Mercer athletics by Five Star Automotive Group, which owns dealerships in Georgia, Tennessee and South Carolina. The president of Five Star Automotive Group, Charlie Cantrell, is also president of the Mercer Athletic Foundation.
The complex is located adjacent to Mercer's other athletic facilities including
Hawkins Arena (
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 ...
and athletic department offices),
Claude Smith Field
OrthoGeorgia Park at Claude Smith Field is a 1,500-seat baseball stadium on the campus of Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, United States. The facility has a press box, concession stands, and additional berm seating along the right field fen ...
(
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 ...
), and Sikes Field (
softball
Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...
). There is a 101-room
Hilton Garden Inn
Hilton Garden Inn is an American chain of mid-priced, limited or focused service hotels owned by Hilton Worldwide. As of December 31, 2019, it has 862 properties with 126,086 rooms in 49 countries and territories, including 81 that are manage ...
on university-owned land adjacent to the complex. Parking lots are available for visitors-spectators arriving via the Mercer University Drive exit off of
Interstate 75
Interstate 75 (I-75) is a major north–south Interstate Highway in the Great Lakes and Southeastern regions of the United States. As with most Interstates that end in 5, it is a major cross-country, north–south route, traveling from S ...
.
Mercer has an
NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...
Division I athletic program and fields teams in eight men's and ten women's sports; all university-sponsored sports compete in the
Southern Conference
The Southern Conference (SoCon) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I. Southern Conference football teams compete in the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly ...
except women's
lacrosse
Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensively ...
and women's
sand volleyball
Beach volleyball is a team sport played by two teams of two or more players on a sand court divided by a net. Similar to indoor volleyball, the objective of the game is to send the ball over the net and to ground it on the opponent's side of the ...
, which are not sponsored by the SoCon, and thus compete in the
ASUN Conference
The ASUN Conference, formerly the Atlantic Sun Conference, is a collegiate athletic conference operating mostly in the Southeastern United States. The league participates at the NCAA Division I level, and began sponsoring football at the Divisio ...
.
See also
*
Mercer Bears
The Mercer Bears are the athletic teams of Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, United States. Mercer is the only private university in Georgia with an NCAA Division I athletic program and fields teams in eight men's and nine women's sports. The ...
*
Claude Smith Field
OrthoGeorgia Park at Claude Smith Field is a 1,500-seat baseball stadium on the campus of Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, United States. The facility has a press box, concession stands, and additional berm seating along the right field fen ...
*
University Center
*
List of NCAA Division I FCS football stadiums
The following is a list of current National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) football stadiums in the United States.
Conference affiliations reflect those for the comin ...
References
{{Georgia college football venues
College football venues
College lacrosse venues in the United States
Mercer Bears football
American football venues in Georgia (U.S. state)
2013 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state)
Sports venues completed in 2013