page_title: Memorial Stadium (Bakersfield)
section_title: Facilities
hierarchical_section_title: Memorial Stadium (Bakersfield) / Facilities
caption_attribution_description: English: Bakersfield Memorial Stadium
context_page_description: Memorial Stadium is a double-decked concrete and steel stadium in northeast Bakersfield, California, near the scenic Panorama Bluffs which overlook the prolific Kern River Oilfields. In July 2019 a brand new state-of-the-art artificial playing surface was installed replacing the worn out and troublesome Bermuda grass field which was susceptible to fungus growth. A brand new state-of-the-art all-weather track was also installed Located at the corner of University Avenue and Mount Vernon Avenue on the campus of Bakersfield College, it is primarily used for American football, and is the home field of the B.C. Renegades. The stadium currently seats 19,468 people but has plenty of standing room which can accommodate close to 24,000 people. When Memorial Stadium was opened in 1955 it originally seated 16,500. It is named to honor the war dead of World War I and World War II. On December 14, 2019, Memorial Stadium will host the CCCAA California Junior College Football Title Game.
context_section_description: The stadium structure was retrofitted and overhauled in the late 1990s. All seats are reserved and are either aluminum benches with backs, or bucket style seats with arm rests. The lower half of the stadium, which was built into a pre-existing ravine, is enclosed with a horseshoe-shaped open end that faces to the southwest and offers views of downtown Bakersfield and the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley. Consequently, this offers an ideal setting for track events as there is a minimal amount of wind on the floor of the stadium that interferes with events and the acceptance of records as the prevailing northwesterly winds blow over the nearby bluffs and above the track and field surface. Consequently, winds very seldom affect games or track events. The field is so shielded from the prevailing wind that people who are often very warm or hot on the field will get a noticeable chill when they move to the top of the upper deck or on the roof of the press box. The upper decks are built of steel-reinforced concrete and sit opposite each other overlooking their respective sidelines. On top of each upper deck are four light standards with 28 lights on each standard that provide field lighting. The lights were last replaced and upgraded in the late 1980s and offer a brilliantly lit playing surface. The visiting-side (eastern) upper deck features an enclosed, partitioned press box with rooms for each team's coaching staff, radio broadcasts, and media.
  Teams dress in the nearby Dr. Romain Clerou Field House, located up the hill from the field next to the gym and swimming pool complex. The field house contains B.C.'s practice and game locker room and offers an adjacent locker room for a visiting team with showers. Visiting teams now use the women's locker room on the north side of the gymnasium to dress.  
  The field and stadium are unusual in that it is not on a traditional north-south axis from goal post to goal post. Due to being built into a pre-existing ravine the axis of the field runs at an approximate northeast-southwest angle. The northeast end of the stadium is closed into the top of the ravine which was filled in to build a parking lot with a concourse connecting each side of the stadium. Most football fields are built on a north-south axis with the press box on the western sideline so that the press box is not looking into the setting sun. Memorial Stadium's press box is built so that when you are looking down onto the field the sun is in your eyes to your left. The press box was built on this side so that it would overlook the track's finish line which could only be built on the eastern side of the stadium due to the closed end on the north end of the stadium. If the finish line was on the western side then it would be out of view of most of the spectators and the press box would have an indirect angle of observation. Because of this emphasis on track and field the scoreboard operator was and still is positioned at the finish line on the field near the northern 30-yard line. The use of a clock operator on the field at Memorial Stadium is the last remaining junior college site in California to do so. This necessitates the use of a spotter on the roof of the press box to relay down, distance, and the yard line to the scoreboard operator with a walkie-talkie.   
  Another quirk due to the odd angle of the stadium is the naming of the two seating areas. The campus side of the stadium is officially called the northern side and the Mt. Vernon Avenue side is called the southern side. Most people refer to the campus side as the western side and the Mt. Vernon Avenue side as the eastern side. Because the stadium was built prior to the Americans With Disabilities Act there are no elevators or escalators. It is 64 steps from the bottom row to the top row of the lower deck. From there to get to the press box you need to go behind the superstructure to enter the steps to the upper deck mezzanine, then go up to the entrance to the seating area, then go up the aisle past 24-rows of upper deck seating to the press box, a tedious work
caption: Bakersfield Memorial Stadium
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