Thomas Robinson Stadium is a

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 ...

Nassau, Bahamas Nassau ( ) is the capital and largest city of the Bahamas. With a population of 274,400 as of 2016, or just over 70% of the entire population of the Bahamas, Nassau is commonly defined as a primate city, dwarfing all other towns in the country. ...

. The largest stadium in the country, it is currently used mostly for soccer matches. The

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 ...

currently has a capacity of 15,000 people, but has the ability to be expanded to hold 23,000 people. The stadium is also the home of the NCAA Division I College Football (

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

) bowl game the

Bahamas Bowl The Bahamas Bowl is an NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision college football bowl game played annually in Nassau, Bahamas, at the 15,000-seat Thomas Robinson Stadium. First held in 2014, the Bowl has tie-ins with the Mid-American Conference ...

. The stadium is named after Thomas A. "Tom" Robinson, a former

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 ...

star who represented

The Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to ...

at several

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

Bahamas national football team withdrawal from 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers

On 22 August 2011,

Bahamas national football team The Bahamas national football team is controlled by the Bahamas Football Association; it was founded in 1967 and joined FIFA in 1968. Bahamas has never qualified for the FIFA World Cup. They have been a part of CONCACAF since 1967. History T ...

was withdrawn by

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

, from the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers. Some days later,

Bahamas Football Association The Bahamas Football Association (BFA), is the official governing body of the sport of Association football in The Bahamas. Founded in 1967 and headquartered in Nassau, the federation is a full member of FIFA since 1968 and governs Bahamian footb ...

current president Anton Sealey said the reason was the incomplete construction of the Thomas Robinson Stadium project in

Nassau Nassau may refer to: Places Bahamas *Nassau, Bahamas, capital city of the Bahamas, on the island of New Providence Canada *Nassau District, renamed Home District, regional division in Upper Canada from 1788 to 1792 *Nassau Street (Winnipeg), ...

Bahamas Bowl (NCAA)

The

is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) sanctioned Division I college American football bowl game first played in December 2014 at Thomas Robinson Stadium. The

American Athletic Conference The American Athletic Conference (The American or AAC) is an American collegiate athletic conference, featuring 11 member universities and five affiliate member universities that compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) ...

gave

Conference USA Conference USA (C-USA or CUSA) is an intercollegiate athletic conference whose current member institutions are located within the Southern United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. C-USA's offices are l ...

its spot in the Popeyes Bahamas Bowl and C-USA allowed

BYU Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day S ...

to take its spot in the

Miami Beach Bowl The Miami Beach Bowl was a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) sanctioned Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) college football bowl game played for three years (2014–2016) at Marlins Park in Miami, Florida. The bowl was crea ...

for 2014. C-USA purchased the Bahamas Bowl and will play in the bowl four times between 2014 and 2019 and possibly all six years. The inaugural game was held on December 24, 2014, and featured the Central Michigan Chippewas (7-5) vs. the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers (7-5).

IAAF World Relays

In 2014, Thomas Robinson Stadium served as the host of the inaugural

IAAF World Relays The World Athletics Relays, known as the ''IAAF World Relays'' until 2019, is an international biennial track and field sporting event held by World Athletics where teams from around the world compete in relay races, some of which are not part of ...

, a relay athletics meet organized by the

IAAF World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body for ...

. A new Mondo track was installed for the competition. The Stadium also hosted the 2015 and 2017 IAAF World Relays.

References

{{NCAA Division I FBS bowl game stadium navbox Football venues in the Bahamas

Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to ...

Multi-purpose stadiums Athletics (track and field) venues in the Bahamas Sports venues completed in 1981 American football venues in North America NCAA bowl game venues 1981 establishments in the Bahamas