Phil Collins packed 20,000 people into this college stadium in 1992, the same summer a World League football team pushed its crowds past 26,000 - not bad for a ground that opened with 6,000 temporary seats. Hornet Stadium, at 6000 J Street on the California State University, Sacramento campus, has been the city's big outdoor stage since 20 September 1969. The stadium replaced old Campus Stadium and stayed modest until professional football forced its growth: the Sacramento Surge of the World League arrived in 1992, and owner Fred Anderson - whose name the field now carries - funded the expansion to 26,000 seats. The Surge won the World Bowl, the CFL's Sacramento Gold Miners followed in 1993-94, and the UFL's Mountain Lions had a turn in 2010-11. Track and field made it nationally significant: the stadium hosted the United States Olympic Trials in 2000 and 2004 - drawing some of the largest track crowds in American history - plus four NCAA Division I Outdoor Championships between 2003 and 2007 on its MONDO surface, cementing Sacramento's reputation as a track town. As home of Sacramento State Hornets football the ground seats 21,195 - among the largest in its conference - with a record college crowd of 23,073 against UC Davis in the 2022 Causeway Classic era, a SprinTurf field installed in 2021, and the Broad Fieldhouse and WELL recreation centre flanking it. The university announced in 2024 that a new 25,000-seat multi-use stadium designed by Populous will replace it on the same site. Practical notes: the campus sits off Highway 50 east of downtown with light rail at University/65th Street station; game-day parking fills the adjacent structures. Catch the old girl while she stands - the wrecking ball is scheduled. The football program gave the old ground a proper last act: Big Sky Conference championships in 2019, 2021 and 2022 turned Hornet Stadium into a genuine home-field advantage, with the 2022 Causeway Classic against UC Davis drawing the record college crowd and student sections filling in numbers the stadium had not seen since the Surge years. The replacement project - announced in September 2024 with Populous, designer of Yankee Stadium and Climate Pledge Arena, on the drawings - is pitched as the centrepiece of the university's push toward top-tier athletics, funded through athletics fees, sponsorships and co-tenant revenue rather than the general fund.

Type: Stadium / Arena

Address: 6000 J Street, Sacramento, CA, United States, 95819

Website: https://hornetsports.com/facilities/hornet-stadium/1

Capacity: 21195

Opening Date: 20/09/1969

Outdoor Area

Accessible