Hancock Whitney Stadium is a 25,450-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 ...

on the campus of the

University of South Alabama The University of South Alabama (USA) is a public research university in Mobile, Alabama. It was created by the Alabama Legislature in May, 1963, and replaced existing extension programs operated in Mobile by the University of Alabama. The first ...

Mobile, Alabama Mobile ( , ) is a city and the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The population within the city limits was 187,041 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, down from 195,111 at the 2010 United States census, 2010 cens ...

. It is the home of the

South Alabama Jaguars football The South Alabama Jaguars football program, established in 2009, represents the University of South Alabama in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. South Alabama joined the FBS in 2012 as a member o ...

program, starting with the 2020 season. The stadium replaced

Ladd–Peebles Stadium Ladd–Peebles Stadium (formerly Ernest F. Ladd Memorial Stadium) is a stadium located in Mobile, Alabama. Opened in 1948, it has a seating capacity of 33,471. It is primarily used for American football, and is the home field for the Senior Bowl ...

, a city-owned all-purpose stadium located some from the campus where the school had played its football games since 2009. The stadium carries the name of

Hancock Whitney Hancock Whitney Corp. is a bank holding company headquartered in Gulfport, Mississippi. It operates 237 branches in Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Texas. The bank is the official bank of the New Orleans Saints and issues the offici ...

, a bank holding company headquartered in

Gulfport, Mississippi Gulfport is the second-largest city in Mississippi after the state capital, Jackson. Along with Biloxi, Gulfport is the co-county seat of Harrison County and the larger of the two principal cities of the Gulfport-Biloxi, Mississippi Metropolitan ...

, while its playing surface is designated as the Abraham A. Mitchell Field, named after a substantial donor to the program. Hancock Whitney Stadium is located on the west part of the South Alabama campus near the football field house, practice fields, and Jaguar Training Center, which is the largest covered practice facility in the state of Alabama.

History

Construction on Hancock Whitney Stadium started on August 6, 2018, and cost $78 million. The stadium opened with on September 12, 2020, with a

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

game against the

Tulane Green Wave The Tulane Green Wave are the athletic teams that represent Tulane University, located in New Orleans, Louisiana. Tulane competes in NCAA Division I as a member of the American Athletic Conference (The American). There are 14 Green Wave interco ...

. Due to

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

restrictions, capacity for the opener and all other 2020 games was capped at 6,000 spectators to allow for

social distancing In public health, social distancing, also called physical distancing, (NB. Regula Venske is president of the PEN Centre Germany.) is a set of non-pharmaceutical interventions or measures intended to prevent the spread of a contagious disea ...

. Hancock Whitney Stadium serves as home of the

Senior Bowl The Senior Bowl is a post-season college football all-star game played annually in late January or early February in Mobile, Alabama, which showcases the best NFL Draft prospects of those players who have completed their college eligibility. Pr ...

, a postseason college football all-star game, since the 2021 edition. The game had previously been held at

for nearly 70 years. Since the 2021 edition, Hanrock Whitney Stadium has also served as home of the

LendingTree Bowl The LendingTree Bowl is a postseason NCAA-sanctioned Division I FBS college football bowl game that has been played annually in Mobile, Alabama since 1999. In 2021, the game was moved from Ladd-Peebles Stadium to Hancock Whitney Stadium, on the ...

, a postseason college bowl game, following 22 years at Ladd–Peebles.

Facility features

* 11 Suites * 42 Loge boxes * Terrace standing room with drink rails (that can convert into a concert stage) * Ample concourse room * Up to 96 points-of-sale for concessions * Musco LED lighting (ability to create light show) * Daktronics high definition video board (top 40 in the country) * Daktronics high definition ribbon boards and sound system

Attendance records

References

2020 establishments in Alabama American football venues in Alabama Multi-purpose stadiums in the United States Senior Bowl South Alabama Jaguars football South Alabama Jaguars sports venues Sports venues completed in 2020 {{Alabama-sports-venue-stub