Mackay Stadium is an outdoor athletic

stadium A stadium ( : stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand o ...

in the

western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

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 ...

, located on the campus of the

University of Nevada The University of Nevada, Reno (Nevada, the University of Nevada, or UNR) is a public land-grant research university in Reno, Nevada. It is the state's flagship public university and primary land grant institution. It was founded on October 12 ...

Reno Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is the ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

. The home venue for

Nevada Wolf Pack The Nevada Wolf Pack are the athletic teams that represent the University of Nevada, Reno. They are part of NCAA's Division I's Mountain West Conference. It was founded on October 24, 1896 with football as the Sagebrushers in Reno, Nevada. Hi ...

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

women's soccer Women's association football, more commonly known simply as women's football or women's soccer, is a team sport of association football when played by women only. It is played at the professional level in multiple countries and 176 national ...

in the

Mountain West Conference The Mountain West Conference (MW) is one of the collegiate athletic conferences affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) (formerly I-A). The MW officially began operations o ...

. it is named in honor of the Mackay family, particularly

John William Mackay John William Mackay (November 28, 1831 – July 20, 1902) was an Irish-American industrialist. Mackay was one of the four Bonanza Kings, a partnership which capitalised on the wealth generated by the silver mines at the Comstock Lode. He al ...

and his son Clarence H. Mackay, who donated funding to build the original stadium in 1909.

History

Located on the northern portion of campus, at 17th Street & East Stadium Way, the stadium opened on October 1, 1966 with a

seating capacity Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available, and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that ...

of 7,500. It replaced the original Mackay Stadium, formerly located in the bowl containing Hilliard Plaza, the Mack Social Sciences building and the Reynolds School of Journalism. Both stadiums were named for the Mackay family, who were university benefactors in the early years of the school. The stadium currently seats 27,000 and has played to crowds in excess. The field is aligned northwest to southeast, 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 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 ...

, with the

press box The press box is a special section of a sports stadium or arena that is set up for the media to report about a given event. It is typically located in the section of the stadium holding the luxury box and can be either enclosed or open to the e ...

on the southwest sideline.

Renovations

Permanent lighting was installed in 2003 to allow the option of night games. Originally natural grass, synthetic infilled FieldTurf was installed in 2000, 2010, and 2022. In 2013, the playing surface at Mackay Stadium was named

Chris Ault Christopher Thomas Ault (born November 8, 1946) is a former American football player, coach, and college athletics administrator. He served three stints at the head football coach at the University of Nevada, Reno (1976–1992, 1994–1995 and 200 ...

Field in honor of the former Wolf Pack head coach, College Football Hall of Famer, creator of the

Pistol offense The pistol offense is an American football formation and strategy developed by coaches Michael Taylor of Mill Valley, California and popularized by Chris Ault when he was head coach at the University of Nevada, Reno. It is a hybrid of the traditi ...

in 2004 and for his contributions to Wolf Pack football. Due to a $1.3 million sponsorship of the 2022 turf replacement, the stadium's playing surface is now officially referred to as "Chris Ault Field presented by ITS Logistics." A proposal passed by the Nevada Board of Regents ( NSHE) upgraded seating options to the stadium for the 2016 season. This renovation has improved the quality of the fans' experiences but decreased the overall stadium capacity to 26,000. Higher ticket fees in the upgraded sections will repay this $11.5 million bond by 2031.

Attendance

The Wolf Pack football single–season attendance record was set in 1991 with a total of 180,457 fans over nine home games, including playoffs; and the regular-season attendance record was set at 151,081 fans in 1993. The single-season attendance record for a Wolf Pack team with a losing record (at 149,635 fans) was set in 2013. 2014 was the third football season to have at least 20,000 fans in attendance at every home game (1993 and 2013), although multiple seasons were close.

Top 25 single-game attendance records

Top 10 season average attendance records

Top 10 season overall attendance records

Other uses

Originally, the Nevada women's soccer team played home games for their inaugural 2000 season at Mendive Middle School in Sparks, Nevada. The following 2001 season, The Pack did not host any soccer home games. Mackay Stadium has played home to the women's soccer team since 2002. The soccer team has hosted home crowds with over 1,000 on three occasions. The record was actually set at the Moana Sports Complex in Reno on September 15, 2013, with a record of 1,050 fans in attendance, where the Wolf Pack beat

Sacramento State California State University, Sacramento (CSUS, Sacramento State, or informally Sac State) is a public university in Sacramento, California. Founded in 1947 as Sacramento State College, it is the eleventh oldest school in the 23-campus California ...

, 3–2. Soccer's home-game attendance record at Mackay Stadium is 1,043 fans, as the Wolf Pack beat

Wyoming Wyoming () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the south ...

, 1–0, on October 18, 2015. The third-largest Nevada soccer game with over 1,000 fans was also held at Mackay Stadium with 1,007 fans on September 23, 2012, as the Wolf Pack lost 0–3 to No. 15 California.

References

External links

Mackay Stadium: Home of Wolf Pack Football and Wolf Pack Soccer

Mackay Stadium – University of Nevada, Reno
{{Nevada college football venues 1966 establishments in Nevada American football venues in Nevada College football venues Nevada Wolf Pack football Nevada Wolf Pack sports venues Sports venues completed in 1966 Sports venues in Reno, Nevada