Casino Del Sol Stadium

About

Casino Del Sol Stadium (formerly Arizona Stadium until 2025) is an outdoor college football stadium located on the campus of the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. It is the home field of the Arizona Wildcats of the Big 12 Conference. On November 17, 2025, the University of Arizona announced a 20 year naming rights deal with the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, with the venue renamed Casino Del Sol Stadium. It opened under the name Arizona Stadium on October 12, 1929, at a cost of $166,888. Originally constructed in 1929 to hold 7,000 spectators, the stadium's seating capacity has been expanded numerous times since. As of 2022, the stadium has a total capacity of 50,800. The facility also includes the offices of the Wildcat football program, as well as some non-athletic academic offices, including the Steward Observatory Mirror Lab.

Located in central Tucson, the stadium has been home to University of Arizona Wildcats football since 1929. Initially, stadium capacity was 7,000, with the only seating located on the stadium's west side. The first game was a 35–0 shutout of Caltech on October 12. Capacity was increased to 10,000 in 1938 when seats were constructed on the stadium's east side. Four thousand seats were added to both end zones in 1947. In 1950, a horseshoe configuration was constructed around the south end zone resulting in the addition of almost 8,700 seats. A multi-level press box and 10,000 seats were added to the west grandstand in 1965. The east side of the stadium received a second tier, consisting of 17,000 seats, in 1976, as the Wildcats prepared to leave the WAC for the Pac-8 in 1978. The Copper Bowl (now the Cactus Bowl) was a postseason bowl game based in Tucson and held at the stadium for 10 years before moving to Phoenix. It is now played in Tempe at Mountain America Stadium, home of rival Arizona State.

In 1981, the track team stopped using the stadium and the track was removed. Permanent seating was placed at the north end zone in 1988. Following the 1988 season, a new press box with luxury sky boxes was built. The sky boxes include 319 loge seats on the first level, 23 luxury suites between the 2nd and 3rd levels, and a media level on the 4th floor. Because the stadium was in place, the sky boxes are built so that the structure is cantilevered out over the western edge of the stadium seats, without actually touching the stadium. Prior to the 1999 season, a new scoreboard with a video monitor was installed. In January 2011, it was announced that a new 5,356-square-foot (498 m2) video board would be installed above the south stands in time for the 2011 season. It is the seventh-largest video screen in college football (sixth-largest if non-college-exclusive stadiums are excluded, as Miami shares Hard Rock Stadium with the Miami Dolphins). In September 2009, Arizona announced plans for the Lowell-Stevens Football Facility, a $72.3 million north end-zone project with seats and luxury boxes atop a four-story complex housing locker rooms, football offices, a weight training area, a cafeteria for student athletes, the upscale Sands Club, and new concessions and bathrooms. The project broke ground after the conclusion of the 2011 season. Because the north bleachers were torn down and the project wouldn't be finished during the 2012 season, several rows of seats were added to the bottom of the south endzone in mid-2012. On July 1, 2013, the project was completed and the team officially moved into the new facility. Because the football offices were formerly housed in the McKale Center, more space was made available for Wildcats basketball and other athletic programs. In addition to the Lowell-Stevens Football Facility, the playing surface was changed from natural Bermuda grass to FieldTurf, an infilled synthetic turf. The new surface allows the team to practice on the field during the week when previously it was off limits while the grass recovered between games. Because of the extreme sun and temperatures in Tucson, the athletic department chose Revolution CoolPlay FieldTurf, designed to keep the surface temperatures cooler than with other artificial turf. In November 2025, the Pascua Yaqui Tribe’s Casino Del Sol reached an agreement with the University to purchase naming rights to the stadium as part of a 20-year, $60 million deal.

Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Photography via Wikimedia Commons.