Business View Magazine | October 2019

204 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2019 September 13, 1969 and was named, in 1971, after Robert C. Dix, former publisher of the Record- Courier, a daily newspaper in Portage County, Ohio, and a member of Kent State’s Board of Trustees for more than three decades. Known as Memorial Stadium until that time, the “new” facility was more of an expansion and relocation of the older building, rather than an entirely new structure. A new grandstand on the west side of the stadium, with seating for over 12,000 people and locker room and press facilities, was constructed on a site east of campus, while approximately 17,000 seats from Memorial Stadium were dismantled and moved to the new site, as well. Memorial Stadium’s sideline grandstands became the end zone seats in the new stadium, while the auxiliary bleacher sections were used for the east stands. Today, the stadium consists of three separate grandstands on each side of the field except the south side, and has a seating capacity of approximately 25,000. On either side of the east grandstands are spaces for party tents, and the south end zone features a Daktronic video scoreboard, which was put in place in 2008, and an open plaza with concessions. Although the first night game was held in 1990, permanent lights were not added until 1996. Artificial turf was installed in 1997 and replaced in 2017 with the latest version of FieldTurf. Prior to the 2002 season, the old east side stands were demolished and replaced. In early 2008, the south end zone bleachers, another remnant of the old stadium, were razed as part of a two-phase renovation of the facility. Other renovations and upgrades have been accomplished over the years, according to David Rush, KSU’s Assistant Athletic Director for Facilities and Operations. “When the stadium was built back in 1969, football, and sports in general, were not as televised,” he notes. “It wasn’t every single day of the week you could turn on TV and see football, basketball, baseball – whatever your heart desired. Now, every one of our five home football games is televised. We’ve had to increase our cabling and 215 South Depeyster St, Kent, Ohio 44240 330.968.6930 kentstatehotel.com