The Decade of New and Improved Stadiums

If you would be asked to name one particular decade where the pro football spectrum saw much more attention to new and better stadiums, the decade of the 1970s certainly must rank as the top, or at least near the top. When the 1970 NFL season dawned, there were 26 pro teams, playing in 27 stadiums.

As any historian of the sport will tell you, the Green Bay Packers played their home games in two stadiums back in the 1970s…one in Green Bay, and one in Milwaukee.

By the end of the 1979 season, however, there were 29 stadiums in use, thanks to a pair of new NFL teams in Seattle and in Tampa Bay. Also by that time, a total of 13 brand new NFL stadiums dotted the pro football countryside.

That’s almost half of the total number of teams in the league! Quite a few teams by 1979 decided not to build new ballparks, but many of them decided to add improvements to their old venues.

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RETIRED STADIUMS

Stadiums that were in use in 1970 that no longer saw NFL games played on their fields by the end of 1979 included the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas; Tiger Stadium in Detroit, Michigan; Tulane Stadium in New Orleans, Louisiana; Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, New York; Franklin Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Kezar Stadium in San Francisco, California; Harvard Stadium in Cambridge, Massachusetts; War Memorial Stadium in Buffalo, New York; Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois; and Municipal Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri.

NEW STADIUMS

During the 1970s, the brand new stadiums included Rich Stadium in Orchard Park, New York; Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio; Texas Stadium in Irving, Texas; The Pontiac Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan; Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri; Schaefer Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts; The Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana; Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey; Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Candlestick Park, San Francisco 49ers; The Kingdome in Seattle, Washington; and Tampa Stadium in Tampa, Florida.

1971 BIG YEAR FOR NEW STADIUMS

Perhaps the one year that saw the highest amount of new stadiums being used for the first time and increased work on upgrading older stadiums was in 1971. In that year of 1971, teams like the Philadelphia Eagles, the Dallas Cowboys, the Chicago Bears, the New England Patriots, and the San Francisco 49ers all moved into new stadiums.

Of those stadiums, Candlestick Park was actually in the process of building the upper deck of stands and fitting it with new seats during the course of the 1971 season!

PETE ROZELLE'S STADIUM VISION

Naturally, the NFL wanted to see as many teams as possible to showcase more modern stadiums during the 1970s. The NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle also wanted to see increased seating capacities in as many new stadiums as possible. More seats equaled more tickets being sold, and Commissioner Rozelle was nothing if not dollar conscious.

Rozelle was also cognizant of the appearance of artificial turf fields in the NFL. There’s no denying it…Rozelle simply loved them. Yes, the players hated them because of all the increased injuries that they got with those artificial playing surfaces. But Rozelle liked the way that they looked, especially on television.

Rozelle was so adamant about his perceived need for artificial playing surfaces across the league that he once informed the ownership of the New Orleans Saints that if Tulane Stadium did not change their field surface from natural grass to Astroturf in 1971, he would grant Super Bowl VI to some other city. The Saints management complied with Rozelle, and Super Bowl VI at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans showcased its brand new green rug.

The modern era in NFL stadiums thus reached its zenith during the 1970s, where modern facilities with larger seating capacities sprouted up, and where overall interest in pro football grew in larger numbers as well.

Trivia Question:

Which dome stadium in the NFL had the world’s largest self-supporting concrete roof in the 1970s?

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Host of Pro Football in the 1970s - Joe Zagorski

Throughout his days, Joe spent some time as a sportswriter and has been a member of the Pro Football Researchers Association since the mid-1980s. Joe is also a proud member of the Pro Football Writers of America.

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