Fred Anderson Field at Hornet Stadium is a 21,195-seat

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

and track

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 completely or partially surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit ...

on the campus of

California State University, Sacramento California State University, Sacramento (CSUS, Sacramento State, or informally Sac State) is a public university in Sacramento, California, United States. Founded in 1947 as Sacramento State College, it is part of the California State Universit ...

(Sacramento State). it is the home field of the Sacramento State Hornets of the

Big Sky Conference The Big Sky Conference is a List of NCAA conferences, collegiate athletic conference, affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA's NCAA Division I, Division I with college football, football competing in the Football Cha ...

. The field is named after local businessman and owner of the

Sacramento Surge The Sacramento Surge was a professional American football team that played in the World League of American Football (WLAF) in 1991 and 1992. The team played its first season at Charles C. Hughes Stadium, Hughes Stadium in Sacramento, and the se ...

, Fred Anderson. Opened on September 20, 1969. It has also been the home stadium of the

of the WLAF, the Sacramento Gold Miners of the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; , LCF) is a Professional gridiron football, professional Canadian football league in Canada. It comprises nine teams divided into two divisions, with four teams in the East Division (CFL), East Division and f ...

and the Sacramento Mountain Lions of the United Football League. It hosted the U.S. Olympic Trials for

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

and

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 60 ...

. Its alignment is nearly north-south, offset slightly northwest, and the street-level

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''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 equipotenti ...

is approximately above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

. The field was natural grass for its first 41 seasons;

FieldTurf FieldTurf is a brand of artificial turf playing surface. It is manufactured and installed by FieldTurf Tarkett, a division of French company Tarkett. FieldTurf is headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and its primary manufacturing facility i ...

was installed in

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

Stadium improvements

1992

* Temporary seating was installed at the end zones to increase capacity to 26,000 for the Sacramento Surge. These seats were removed in 1993 to accommodate for the larger

CFL The Canadian Football League (CFL; , LCF) is a professional Canadian football league in Canada. It comprises nine teams divided into two divisions, with four teams in the East Division and five in the West Division. The CFL is the highest pr ...

field.

1998

* Permanent chairbacks were installed in Section 213 at the 50–yard line.

2000

* The stadium underwent a $1 million improvement in preparation for the U.S. Track and Field Olympic Trials; An Olympic–sized track was installed surrounding the field as well as a practice track north of the stadium.http://www.legacy.usatf.org/statistics/champions/OlympicTrials/HistoryOfTheOlympicTrials.pdf The History of the Olympic Trials, published by USATF

2003

* New scoreboard installed.

2007

* New public entrances

2008

* Broad Fieldhouse opened, which included new offices, locker rooms, athletic training room, weight room and a VIP patio.

2010

* Natural grass was replaced by FieldTurf Duraspine Pro. * "The Well" opened next to the north end zone which provided paved areas for concessions. * A Jumbotron was added below the scoreboard for Sacramento Mountain Lions' games.

Proposed replacement

On September 26, 2024, Sacramento State President

Luke Wood Luke Wood is an American music executive and musician, known as being the president of both Beats Electronics from 2012 to 2020 and DGC Records from 2007 to 2010. He was also a guitarist for the 1990s alt-rock bands Sammy and Girls Against Bo ...

, athletic director Mark Orr, and Hornets football head coach Andy Thompson announced plans for a new 25,000-seat stadium to be built on the site of the current Hornet Stadium, with construction to begin at the end of the

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

season. The venue would be designed by Populous and include student seating, premium seating, and boxes. The effort to replace Hornet Stadium comes as part of a push to elevate Sacramento State to the FBS level and gain entry to the

Pac-12 Conference The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the Western United States. It participates at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I level for all sports, and its Co ...

or the

Mountain West Conference The Mountain West Conference (MW) is a collegiate athletic conference in the Western United States, participating in NCAA Division I. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The MW officially began operations on Ja ...

; the Sacramento-Stockton-Modesto DMA is the 20th-largest media market in the nation and would be the second-largest in the Pac-12. Following the announcement, a group of local business and political leaders, named the SAC 12, announced that it had raised $35 million in NIL funds to support the effort; the group includes California State Senators Angelique Ashby and Melissa Hurtado, Assemblymembers Stephanie Nguyen and Joe Patterson, and Hornet football alum and former San Francisco 49er Otis Amey, among others.

Notable events

* On July 17, 1993, it was the site of the first regular season

(CFL) game ever played on American soil, where the

Calgary Stampeders The Calgary Stampeders are a professional Canadian football team based in Calgary, Alberta. The Stampeders compete in the West Division (CFL), West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The club plays its home games at McMahon Stadium a ...

defeated the Gold Miners 38–36. * Fred Anderson Field hosted the first game between U.S. franchises in the CFL when the

Las Vegas Posse The Las Vegas Posse were a Canadian Football League (CFL) team, that played at the Sam Boyd Silver Bowl in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States, in the league's 1994 CFL season, 1994 season as part of the Canadian Football League in the United States ...

defeated the Gold Miners 32–26. * The largest crowd ever to witness an event at Fred Anderson Field was when the

defeated the Barcelona Dragons in the World League playoffs on May 30, 1992 in front of 26,445 fans. * The Sacramento Mountain Lions played their first game at the stadium on September 25, 2010 in a 24–20 win over the

Florida Tuskers Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

in front of a crowd that was estimated to be over 20,000. * The stadium hosted the U.S. Olympic Trials for

and

. * In 2011, the stadium hosted the

World Masters Athletics Championships The World Masters Athletics Championships are the biennial championships for masters athletics events held under the auspices of World Masters Athletics, formerly called the World Association of Veteran Athletes, for athletes 35 years of age or ...

. * The stadium hosted the

California Interscholastic Federation The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) is the governing body for high school sports in the U.S. state of California. CIF membership includes both public and private high schools. Unlike most other state organizations, it does not have s ...

State Football Championships from 2015 to 2017. * The 2014 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships was held at Fred Anderson Field . Organized by USA Track and Field, the four-day competition took place in conjunction with the USA Junior Combined Events Outdoor Track & Field Championships which started the day before and served as the national championships in track and field for the United States. * The largest Sacramento State football crowd occurred on November 19, 2022 when 23,073 fans saw the Hornets complete an 11–0 season with a 27–21 victory over

UC Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University ...

in the Causeway Classic.

Gallery

File:Hornet Stadium (Sacramento State).jpg, Fred Anderson Field – Home grandstand File:Hornet Stadium (Sacramento St.).jpg, Fred Anderson Field – Away grandstand

References

External links

Hornet Stadium website
{{Sacramento Gold Miners 1969 establishments in California American football venues in California Athletics (track and field) venues in California Canadian Football League venues Canadian football venues in the United States College football venues in California College track and field venues in the United States Sacramento Gold Miners Sacramento State Hornets football Sports venues completed in 1969 Sports venues in Sacramento, California United Football League (2009–2012) venues