Location 1440 Monroe Street, Madison, WI 53711-2051
Broke ground 1917
Opened November 3, 1917
Owner University of Wisconsin–Madison
Operator University of Wisconsin–Madison
Surface FieldTurf (2003- )
AstroTurf (1968-2002)
Natural grass (1917-67)
Capacity 80,321
Tenants
Wisconsin Badgers (NCAA) (1917-present)

Camp Randall Stadium is an outdoor stadium in Madison, Wisconsin. The home of the Wisconsin Badgers football team and the Madison Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps, it is located on the center-southern region of the University of Wisconsin campus. The stadium seats 80,321. It is the oldest and fourth largest stadium in the Big Ten Conference, and the 41st largest stadium in the world.

The stadium received its name because it lies on the grounds of Camp Randall, a former Union Army training camp during the Civil War. The camp was named after then Governor Alexander Randall, who later became Postmaster General of the United States.

Originally, the stadium consisted of a horseshoe opening to the south, with a running track around the field. The stadium was renovated at various points to raise the size of the horseshoe by nearly doubling the number of rows around the stadium in stages, placing south stands in front of the Wisconsin Field House (built in 1930), the removal of the track and addition of nearly 11,000 seats in 1958, the addition of the upper deck in 1966, and finally the 2005 addition of boxes along the eastern rim of the stadium.

The field was originally natural grass, and was one of the first in the United States to convert to artificial turf in 1968. A new AstroTurf field was installed in 1990. A new type of artificial grass field, infilled FieldTurf was installed for the 2003 season.

The stadium also houses athletic offices of the university. In 2002, a large-scale reconstruction project commenced, which added luxury boxes, a five-story office building, and separate football program offices. In addition, concessions, restrooms and other infrastructure items were upgraded, the walkway around the field was removed, and new scoreboards were installed. The construction was completed prior to the start of the 2005 season. The football team continued to play at the stadium throughout the construction.

Also during this period of reconstruction at the stadium, changes were made to the visiting team locker room. Known as one of the best visiting team locker rooms in the Big Ten Conference, it was initially painted a bright pink, a color thought to affect the play of the visiting team (similar to Iowa’s pale pink visiting locker room). The UW Athletic Dept. decided that the color may irritate the opposing team and had the room painted a pale shade of blue called “prison blue.” It is known in this way because it is the color used in Wisconsin state prison cells and is intended to have a “calming effect.” Since this change, the Badgers have had a 30-3 home record (as of 11/23/08), with their only losses being a 20-17 heartbreaker to #14 Ohio State (10/04/08), a massive 48-7 loss to #6 Penn State (10/11/08), and a 20-10 loss to Iowa in Barry Alvarez’s final game as head coach (11/12/2005). The numbers of Wisconsin’s two Heisman Trophy winners, Alan Ameche and Ron Dayne, are displayed on the upper deck façade. Both of their numbers (35 and 33, respectively) are retired; The retired numbers of Elroy Hirsch (40), Dave Schreiner (80), Allan Schafer (83), and Pat Richter (88) were added during the 2006 football season.

At Barry Alvarez’s final game as head coach in 2005, plans were announced to place a statue of him in the Stadium’s Kellner Plaza. The bronze statue was unveiled on 13 October 2006. On 17 November, it was joined by a similar statue of former UW athlete and athletic director Pat Richter.