The playing field sits 25 feet below ground so the stadium would not loom over the mansions of University Park - a football cathedral politely half-buried in one of Dallas's wealthiest neighbourhoods. Gerald J. Ford Stadium, at 5801 Bush Avenue on the Southern Methodist University campus, opened on 2 September 2000 with a 31-17 Mustangs win over Kansas, returning SMU football to campus for the first time since the 1980s. The 42-million-dollar horseshoe by Ellerbe Becket rose on the site of 1926-vintage Ownby Stadium, styled in the university's Collegiate-Georgian brick with half its seats below grade. It is named not for the president but for Gerald J. Ford, the Dallas banking billionaire and SMU alumnus whose 20-million-dollar gift anchored the project. The stadium's deeper meaning is resurrection: SMU football received the NCAA's only "death penalty" in 1987, and the on-campus stadium was conceived as the cornerstone of the long climb back. The climb ended emphatically - the Mustangs joined the ACC in 2024 and reached the conference championship game in their first season, with record crowds topping 33,000 against TCU. Capacity now stands at 33,200 following the 100-million-dollar Garry Weber End Zone Complex, completed in 2024, which enclosed the open south end with premium spaces and team facilities; the surface returned to Bermuda grass in 2025. The building also hosts the First Responder Bowl each December and hosted the Armed Forces Bowl in 2010-2011. Game days are compact and walkable: the Boulevard - SMU's tree-lined tailgate down Bishop Boulevard - is among the best traditions in Texas football, DART's Mockingbird Station is a short walk east, and the Park Cities setting puts Dallas's best dining minutes away. The numbers trace the program's recovery: the stadium opened with 32,000 seats, 600 club seats and roughly two dozen luxury suites in its three-level press tower, engineered for eventual expansion toward 45,000. Attendance records set in the opener stood for two decades until the ACC era smashed them - 33,168 watched the 2024 TCU game, and the 2025 season opener drew over 33,000 again, sellouts unthinkable during the long rebuilding years.

Type: Stadium / Arena

Address: 5800 Ownby Drive, Dallas, TX, United States, 75205

Website: https://smumustangs.com

Capacity: 33200

Opening Date: 02/09/2000

Serves Food

Outdoor Area

Accessible