Malone Stadium is a

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 ...

Monroe, Louisiana Monroe is the ninth-largest city in the U.S. state of Louisiana, and is the parish seat and largest city of Ouachita Parish. With a 2020 census-tabulated population of 47,702, it is the principal city of the Monroe metropolitan statistical ...

, United States, on the campus of the

University of Louisiana at Monroe The University of Louisiana at Monroe (ULM) is a public university in Monroe, Louisiana, United States. It is part of the University of Louisiana System. History ULM opened in 1931 as Ouachita Parish Junior College. Three years later it becam ...

. It is primarily used for football and is the home field of the ULM Warhawks. The stadium, named for former coach James L. Malone, opened in 1978 and has a seating capacity of 27,617 people.

History

Because Northeast Louisiana University's previous stadium could hold just over 8,000 spectators, the late Mayor W. L. "Jack" Howard pushed for construction of a new football stadium. Malone Stadium, named after the winningest coach in school history James L. Malone, opened on September 16, 1978, with a capacity of 20,000, with the then-Northeast Louisiana Indians beat Arkansas State, 21–13. It is located across Bayou Desiard from the main campus, the center of the school's athletic facilities. The field runs roughly north-northeast, with an imbalanced grandstand, the west stands being the larger stands. The lower west level is a solid enclosed structure, with the ULM Athletic Training Center enclosed, and the upper level extends much higher, with the press box and luxury boxes located on top. The east side is also decked, with a short first deck wrapping around almost from goalpost to goalpost and another short steel-supported upper deck running the length of the field.

Renovations

Both sides of seating were extended into each

end zone The end zone is the scoring area on the field, according to gridiron-based codes of football. It is the area between the end line and goal line bounded by the sidelines. There are two end zones, each being on the opposite side of the field ...

in 1983, increasing the capacity to 23,277. The press box was enlarged in 1991, and capacity decreased to 22,077. In 1993, 8,350 seats were added to the stadium, increasing capacity to its current figure of 30,427. In 2007, ULM excavated the natural grass from Malone Stadium to install ProPlay artificial turf. Retrieved on October 12, 2009. In 2011, the university installed a new scoreboard with a HD video display measuring 23 feet high by 48 feet wide (1,104 square feet) and flanked by two low definition video panels for advertisements measuring high by wide. Also, a new sound system was installed in the upper corners of the scoreboard. A record crowd of 31,175 was reached on September 21, 2012 against the

Baylor Bears The Baylor Bears are the athletic teams that represent Baylor University. The teams participate in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as one of only three private school members of the Big 12 Conference. Prior t ...

at the 2012 home opener. In 2014, JPS Aviation/JPS Equipment Rental paid $450,000 to replace the artificial turf with new

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 ...

and for the field to be named JPS Field at Malone Stadium for the next eight seasons. A new field house facility was completed in August 2016 at a cost of $4.1 million. The building is located in the north end zone, attached to the west grandstand. It features a hall of fame area, locker room, coaches’ offices, and patios overlooking the field.

Largest crowds

The largest crowd to see a Warhawk football game in Malone Stadium was 31,175 on September 21, 2012, when the Warhawks hosted Baylor University. In 2020, there was only 25% of people allowed due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Gallery

File:Malone Stadium, Monroe, Louisiana, USA - Home Stands exterior.jpg, Exterior of Malone Stadium File:Malone Stadium, Monroe, Louisiana - Home Stands and Scoreboard.jpg, Scoreboard exterior File:Malone Stadium, Monroe, Louisiana - Home Stands interior and JPS Field, from seating area.jpg, Malone Stadium seating area File:Malone Stadium, Monroe, Louisiana - Home Stands interior and JPS Field, front view.jpg, Stadium home stands and football fieldhouse File:Malone Stadium, Monroe, Louisiana - Home Stands interior and JPS Field, close end zone view.jpg, Malone Stadium home stands and JPS Field File:Malone Stadium, Monroe, Louisiana - JPS Field.jpg, JPS Field in Malone Stadium File:Malone Stadium, Monroe, Louisiana - JPS Field and goalpost.jpg, JPS Field goalpost File:Malone Stadium Scoreboard, Monroe, Louisiana.jpg, Stadium scoreboard on display File:Fant–Ewing Coliseum and Malone Stadium on Bayou Desiard.jpg, Malone Stadium and Fant–Ewing Coliseum from Bayou Desiard

References

External links