Nottingham Field is an 8,533-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 ...
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 Northern Colorado
The University of Northern Colorado (UNC) is a public university in Greeley, Colorado. The university was founded in 1889 as the State Normal School of Colorado and has a long history in teacher education. The institution has officially changed ...
in
Greeley, Colorado
Greeley is the home rule municipality city that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Weld County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 108,795 at the 2020 United States Census, an increase of 17.12% since the 2010 ...
. It is home to the
Northern Colorado Bears
The Northern Colorado Bears are the athletic teams representing the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, Colorado in intercollegiate athletics. The university sponsors seventeen teams including men and women's basketball, cross country, gol ...
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
track and field
Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...
programs.
History
Nottingham field was erected in 1995 in order to relieve the aging facilities at Jackson Field. UNC won consecutive
Division II national football titles in
1996
File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...
and
1997
File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...
, their second and third seasons at Nottingham Field. The Bears moved up to Division I-AA (now
FCS) in
2004
2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO).
Events January
* January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...
and joined the
Big Sky Conference
The Big Sky Conference (BSC) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I with football competing in the Football Championship Subdivision. Member institutions are located in the western United States in the eigh ...
in
2006
File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...
.
The stadium's initial capacity was 6,500 and it is named for Victor R. Nottingham, a former Colorado State College of Education (UNC) student body president who spearheaded the effort to raise private funds for the entire $4 million project.
The
natural grass field is aligned north-northeast to south-southwest at an approximate
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 ยง 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 ...
.
Renovations
Prior to the 2005 season, the stadium's seating capacity was expanded to over 8,500 with an additional 1,500 possible in the endzone and the natural grass hill in the northwest corner of the stadium, by expanding the east stands.
In 2015 a scoreboard structure including a Daktronics video board, Bear Vision, was erected beyond the south endzone of the field.
In 2021 the field's surface was updated to IRONTURF. The donor-funded project was completed by Academy Sports Turf, Inc. and premiered in the Bears home opener against Lamar.
Gallery
See also
*
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
College football venues
College track and field venues in the United States
Northern Colorado Bears football
Multi-purpose stadiums in the United States
American football venues in Colorado
Athletics (track and field) venues in Colorado
Sports venues completed in 1995
1995 establishments in Colorado
{{Colorado-stadium-stub