Bridgeforth Stadium History

“The quarterback hands the ball off to the running back, the running back runs up the field, faking right, dodging left, running right through the other team’s defense. He’s going, going…GONE! TOUCHDOWN!!” Agh, good ole football, America’s favorite pastime. Especially, at James Madison University where their Dukes are 7-1! Although, they are very good they wouldn’t be the same without the beautiful Bridgeforth Stadium. Hm..we value the Stadium almost the same way the Romans valued the “Colosseum”. In actuality, Bridgeforth got their ideas from the Colosseum from the way it was built to the purpose of the building itself.
As I’ve said before Bridgeforth Stadium is at the wonderful James Madison University. It is now home for the James Madison University Dukes Football Team. Bridgeforth was built in 1975, but since then has had some major renovations. In the beginning, Bridgeforth was named Madison and only held 5,200 people in the stadium. It was originally

Bridgeforth Jr., who was a former member of the JMU Board of Visitors. In 2003 a scoreboard was added with an additional video replay. In 2006, the artificial turf on the field was replaces with actual field turf. The most important renovation was in 2009 with the inclusion of the demolition of the existing west stands, removal of the track, and the construction of the two-tiered complex in its place. Later in 2010 the scoreboard as dismantled to make room for seating. Bridgeforth was finally finished in 2011 and now the seating capacity was raised to about 25,000 people, a larger video scoreboard in the south end-zone, addition of 17 suites, and also increased stadium lighting. The total reconstruction over time estimated to about, wait for it...$90 million dollars!! So much money, but at the end of the day the stadium is beautiful and worth every