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Joe Albi Stadium is an outdoor athletic stadium in Spokane, Washington. Opened in 1950 and primarily used for high school football, it is located in the northwest part of the city, just east of the Spokane River. ==History== The stadium is located on the former site of the Baxter hospital reservation of the U.S. Army. Built in less than four months in 1950, it opened as "Spokane Memorial Stadium" on September 15 with high school football. The name was selected through a newspaper contest and adopted by the city council in July.〔 Its original grass field was taken from the lush sod of the parade grounds at historic Fort George Wright, south of the stadium. The venue had a seating capacity of 25,000 and did not have a running track; city track continued at Hart Field in south Spokane. The first manager of the stadium was Fred Bohler, the former coach and athletic director at Washington State College in Pullman. In 1954, it was considered as a potential minor league baseball venue; Indians Stadium (now Avista Stadium) opened in 1958. Memorial Stadium was renamed in the spring of 1962 for attorney Joseph A. Albi (1892–1962), a local sports booster who led the efforts to fund and construct it. That summer, the field level was lowered by and 7,000 seats were added. AstroTurf was first installed in 1970, and was replaced with SuperTurf in 1979 and 1984. The playing surface was altered for professional soccer in 1996, essentially undoing the lowering project of 1962. The field level was raised and the width of the new artificial turf was extended to , formerly at , and seating was removed.〔 The field was changed a decade later to infilled FieldTurf in 2006. The stadium has a current seating capacity of 28,646, and the playing field runs in the traditional north-south configuration at an elevation of above sea level.〔(Topographic map & aerial photo ) from USGS via Microsoft Research Maps〕 The press box is located at the top of the west grandstand. Over the years it has hosted various events: concerts (including Elvis Presley in 1957), rodeos, and auto races. The most notable team to play at the stadium was the Washington State Cougars, now of the Pac-12, who played several games per season at the stadium for more than three decades. On the professional level, the field has hosted to three professional leagues. In 1961 the Calgary Stampeders defeated the Saskatchewan Roughriders 14-7 in a CFL pre-season game.〔http://stats.cfldb.ca/league/cfl/schedule/1961/08/01/ssk-vs-cgy/〕 Then it was the Seattle Seahawks of the NFL playing their second preseason game in franchise history at Joe Albi on August 7, 1976, losing 27-16 to the Chicago Bears. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Joe Albi Stadium」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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