Yulman Stadium

Yulman Stadium is the on-campus venue for football at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. It currently has a capacity of 30,000 spectators, with 4,500 premium seats in two fan clubs – the Westfeldt Terrace and the Jill H. and Avram A. Glazer Family Club. The stadium's first game and grand opening was the 2014 season's home opener against its former Southern Conference and Southeastern Conference foe Georgia Tech on September 6, 2014.

Yulman replaced the Mercedes-Benz Superdome as the home stadium of Tulane Green Wave football after 39 seasons at that venue, and it is situated on the university's Uptown campus between the Tulane baseball team's Turchin Stadium and the former site of Tulane's last on-campus football stadium, Tulane Stadium.

Stadium features

The stadium features two elevated club decks on the home side. The Jill H. and Avram A. Glazer Family Club is the premier club-level seating in the stadium, with 1,500 chair back seats, two club rooms, two bars, expanded concessions, and a large meeting space. The remainder of Yulman's premium seating is composed of 3,000 chair back seats in the Westfeldt Terrace, located directly above the Glazer Club and covered by a canopy. Westfeldt features a panoramic view of the New Orleans skyline and premium concessions, including traditional New Orleans dishes.

A large-scale meeting space is located on the ground level for use year-round. The entry space in front of the stadium, known as the Athletes Plaza, is used for pre- and post-game activities. The field's end zones feature a green and white checkerboard pattern such as that in the original Tulane Stadium, as well as an alternating green pattern made to look similar to real, mown grass. Yulman holds a 94-by-24-foot LED video board, as well as two ribbon displays, all made by Daktronics. Barry Kern from Mardi Gras World created a float for use during pre-game parades, as well as a mural inside the Glazer Club.

Stadium updates

Yulman was designed and constructed with the ability to expand in the future should demand dictate it, specifically with 5,000—10,000 seats in the east sideline and north end zone (Glazer/Westfeldt side and Wilson end zone, respectively).

Prior to the 2016 season, Tulane Athletic Director Troy Dannen announced the addition of a sculpture of the program's classic "Angry Wave" to the top of the scoreboard. Installed during the 2017 season and located above the student section and produced by Mardi Gras World, the sculpture doubles as a water feature, though details of that aspect were not announced. The Angry Wave—made of fiberglass and steel—weighs and is tall and wide.

History

For some time, Tulane fans had felt chagrin at playing games at the Superdome. The stadium seated over 75,000 people for football, but in most cases, Green Wave football games were swallowed up by the environment.

University representatives initially named the stadium "Tulane Community Stadium" but revealed its official name in late 2012. Richard Yulman, the former chair/owner of Serta and a member of the Board of Tulane, and his wife donated $15 million toward construction of the project, gaining naming rights to the stadium in the process. He later committed another $10 million to the project as a challenge to other donors to completely fund the project through private donations by the end of the first football season in the stadium. The stadium’s playing surface was named Benson Field after New Orleans Saints and New Orleans Pelicans owner Tom Benson and his wife Gayle, who jointly donated $7.5 million from the Gayle and Tom Benson Charitable Foundation.

File:Yulman Stadium construction February 2014 1.jpg, View from Westfeldt Terrace
File:Yulman Stadium construction February 2014 2.jpg, Home side & student section
File:Yulman Stadium construction February 2014 3.jpg, Visitors' side & press box
File:Yulman Stadium construction February 2014 4.jpg, Student section & video board
File:Yulman Stadium construction February 2014 5.jpg, Glazer Family Club

In its first game in Yulman Stadium, Tulane played the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in front of a university-reported crowd of 30,000 spectators. The opening game sold out 14 minutes after single-game tickets went on sale, and students picked up roughly 5,000 tickets for the game (about 40% of the entire undergraduate and graduate enrollment of the university), making it the largest student crowd at a Tulane game since football moved off campus in 1975.

Attendance history

''Attendance at games through December 3, 2022''

Other events

Yulman Stadium hosted its first high school football game on September 8, 2017 when New Orleans Catholic schools De La Salle and St. Augustine played. It was the first prep contest on the Tulane campus since November 3, 1979, when Chalmette defeated Jesuit 23–9 at Tulane Stadium.

Yulman hosted its first Louisiana High School Athletic Association state championship game on December 6, 2019, when Archbishop Rummel defeated Baton Rouge Catholic 17–14 for the Division I select title. It will host two LHSAA select championship games on December 4, 2021: Baton Rouge Catholic vs. Jesuit and Lafayette Christian vs. St. Charles Catholic.

Gallery

File:Yulman Stadium Homecoming.jpg, View from End zone
File:Yulman Stadium Westfeldt.jpg, View from Westfeldt Terrace
File:Yulman Medallion.jpg, Original Tulane Stadium medallion
File:Yulman Stadium Exterior.jpg, Front facade
File:Yulman Opener Student Section.jpg, Student section at opening game
File:Yulman Glazer Club.jpg, A bar in the Glazer Club
File:Yulman Stadium opening day (top corner).jpg, View from Westfeldt Terrace
File:Yulman Stadium opening day (end zone).jpg, Field view
File:Yulman Stadium opening day (corner end zone).jpg, Field view (student endzone)
File:Yulman Stadium (scoreboard).jpg, Video board
File:YulmanStadiumOpener.jpg, Glazer Club & Westfeldt Terrace

See also

*List of NCAA Division I FBS football stadiums

References

External links

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{{Music venues of Louisiana

American football venues in New Orleans
College football venues
Tulane Green Wave football venues
High school football venues in Louisiana
Music venues in Louisiana
Sports venues completed in 2014
2014 establishments in Louisiana
Tulane University