Bryant – Denny Stadium Bryant – Denny Stadium , located in Tuscaloosa , Alabama , is the home stadium for the University of Alabama football team . The stadium opened in 1929 and was originally named Denny Stadium in honor of former University of Alabama president George H . Denny . The stadium ' s name was amended to Bryant – Denny Stadium in 1975 after the Alabama legislature chose to honor famed Alabama coach Paul " Bear " Bryant . It has a seating capacity of 101 , 821 , and is the second largest stadium in the SEC , the fifth largest stadium in the United States and the eighth largest non - racing stadium by seating in the world . Construction . Serving as a replacement for Denny Field , Denny Stadium opened on September 28 , 1929 , with 6 , 000 in attendance for a 55 – 0 victory over Mississippi College . It was officially dedicated the following week at Homecoming ceremonies against Ole Miss , a game the Crimson Tide would win 22 – 7 . Originally , the stadium had a capacity of 12 , 000 - - the lower half of the current stadium ' s east grandstand . However , President Denny initially envisioned a full bowl stadium capable of seating 66 , 000 people . In 1937 , the first expansion of the stadium added 6 , 000 seats along the east sideline to increase the capacity to 18 , 000 . Further expansions in 1950 , 1961 , and 1966 raised capacity to 25 , 000 , 43 , 000 , and 60 , 000 , respectively . The first upper deck was added on the west side of the stadium in 1988 , adding 10 , 000 more seats for a capacity of 70 , 123 . During the construction , the Crimson Tide was forced to play its entire 1987 home schedule at Birmingham ' s Legion Field , from the Tuscaloosa campus . East upper deck ( 1998 ) . In September 1995 , the University of Alabama System Board of Trustees approved the construction of the east upper deck . Designed by the architectural firm of Heery - Chambless - Adams , the construction was financed by the university and $ 4 . 65 million from the city of Tuscaloosa , the city of Northport and Tuscaloosa County . The localities contributed to construction costs in return for the university pledging to move all Crimson Tide home games to Bryant – Denny and not play any at Legion Field . The new upper deck provided 10 , 000 additional bleacher seats and eighty - one skyboxes on two levels — sixty - three 16 - seat and eighteen 24 - seat capacity boxes . In 1999 , four additional skyboxes were built to bring total number of skyboxes to 85 . A JumboTron scoreboard with video display capabilities was erected in the south end zone and was at the time the largest in collegiate sports . Additionally , a new east side entrance tower a brick facade and reception areas for the Scholarship and A - Club level patrons was also added during the 1998 expansion . On September 5 , 1998 , the stadium ' s eastern upper deck was opened , and raised its official seating capacity to 83 , 818 at a final cost of $ 35 million . In the first game in the newly expanded stadium , Alabama defeated BYU 38 – 31 , with Shaun Alexander scoring an Alabama single - game record five touchdowns in the win . North end zone expansion ( 2006 ) . Following the 2004 football season , the university spent approximately $ 47 million on an expansion to the north end zone , which was completed days before the 2006 season opener against Hawaii . The expansion added a new upper deck to the North end zone area , complete with three different levels of skyboxes , which collectively are known as " The Zone " , which brought the number of skyboxes in the stadium to 123 . Two large display screens by Daktronics were placed in each corner of the north end zone . LCD ribbon screens , tall by wide , were placed along the front edge of the east and west upper decks . Massive changes were made to the grounds of north side of the stadium with the addition of a Walk of Champions . Building the Walk of Champions required the demolition of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity house and the grading of the hill it sat upon . The Walk of Champions comprises a brick plaza leading from University Boulevard to the north end zone entrances . The plaza features 16 granite monuments set into the walkway commemorating the Crimson Tide ' s SEC and national championship teams throughout the years . Along the west side of the plaza are five roughly , tall bronze statues , one for each Alabama football coach who has led the Crimson Tide to a national championship . Each statue has a semicircular wall behind it bearing the coach ' s name and the year ( s ) that he led the team to a national championship . The first four statues , unveiled during the opening in 2006 , included Wallace Wade , Frank Thomas , Paul " Bear " Bryant , and Gene Stallings . The fifth statue , that of Nick Saban , was unveiled prior to the A - Day game on April 16 , 2011 . It commemorates Saban guiding Alabama to its 13th National Championship with a 37 – 21 win over the Texas Longhorns . Finally , there is a bronze statuary group of two anonymous Alabama football players at the entrance to the north end zone , with the one on the left holding a large Alabama Crimson Tide flag upright on a flagpole . This player is wearing the number 18 and wearing a helmet , with the player on the right wearing the number 92 and pointing into the distance . The jersey numbers represent 1892 , the year that the Crimson Tide began playing . The north end zone was opened for the 2006 season opener versus Hawaii , which set a new record attendance of 92 , 138 . The Crimson Tide was victorious , 25 – 17 . South end zone expansion ( 2010 ) . The University of Alabama Board of Trustees approved a study for further expansion of Bryant - Denny on September 19 , 2008 . The Physical Properties Committee of the University of Alabama Board of Trustees heard a presentation from UA athletic department on November 13 , 2008 regarding the proposed $ 80 . 6 million expansion of the south end zone upper deck and suite level of Bryant – Denny Stadium . The proposed expansion would bring the stadium ' s capacity to approximately 101 , 600 , therefore making it the second largest stadium in the Southeastern Conference ( SEC ) , and the fifth largest stadium in college football . The committee unanimously approved the project to move into the third of four stages , the fourth being final approval to begin construction . On February 6 , 2009 , the university ' s Board of Trustees voted unanimously and without discussion to give the final approval construction to commence on the south end zone expansion . With the approval of the Board of Trustees , construction began in the Spring 2009 and continued throughout the 2009 football season . The expansion was finished in time for the first game of the team ' s 2010 season . " The Tuscaloosa News " reported on April 17 , 2009 that due to the economic climate and resultant lowered construction costs , the stadium expansion cost $ 15 million less than expected , coming in around $ 65 . 6 million . The expanded south end zone now includes a two level South Zone club with a total of 1 , 700 seats and 36 skyboxes to bring the total number of skyboxes in Bryant – Denny Stadium to 159 , as well as an 8 , 500 seat upper deck . The entire stadium ' s audio / visual system was upgraded including two new video boards in both corners of the south end zone . Prior to the 2009 season , the large south scoreboard was disassembled to make way for the construction of the new stadium expansion . During this process , some welding equipment started a fire that burned the inside of the scoreboard . Also , during this time , four new play clocks and down / distance indicators were installed ( one behind each corner of the end zones ) and a new LED game clock was placed behind the south goalpost . The expansion was completed in mid summer 2010 and held an official capacity of 101 , 821 making it the 5th largest college football stadium in the country . The new seats were all sold out quickly for the entire 2010 football season . In the future , the new expansion will include stores and other extras on the bottom of the end zone . Football lore . Since its opening for the 1929 season through the 2010 season , the Crimson Tide owns a 212 – 50 – 3 all - time record at Bryant – Denny Stadium . Bear Bryant is the leader in wins at Bryant – Denny , with an all - time record of 72 – 2 while head coach of Alabama . Despite its success at Bryant – Denny , much of Alabama " home " football history occurred at Birmingham ' s Legion Field . Up until the late 1990s , Legion Field hosted the more important games , including the Iron Bowl , which was considered a neutral site from 1948 through 1987 ; the Crimson Tide hosted Tennessee in odd - numbered years in Birmingham until 1999 , and hosted LSU in even - numbered years from 1964 through 1986 , except for 1980 . Usually , Bryant – Denny hosted about three to four games per season . However , in 1998 , when Bryant – Denny was expanded to a capacity exceeding Legion Field , the more important home games started to move to Bryant – Denny , culminating with the move of the Tennessee series to Tuscaloosa in 1999 and the Iron Bowl a year later . From 1998 to 2003 , Bryant – Denny hosted the more important games while Legion Field hosted two or three minor games . Finally , in 2003 , Alabama played its final game at Legion Field against the South Florida Bulls , and now Bryant – Denny is the sole home of Alabama football . However , despite most past big games being played at Legion Field , Bryant – Denny Stadium has hosted many memorable games , such as the 1994 shootout between Alabama ' s Jay Barker and Georgia ' s Eric Zeier , Marvin Constant ' s goal - line stop against LSU quarterback Josh Booty as time expired in 1999 , Tyrone Prothro ' s reception over the back of Southern Miss defensive back Jasper Faulk in 2005 , a 31 – 3 victory over No . 5 Florida in 2005 , the Roman Harper - forced fumble against Tennessee in 2005 that helped the Crimson Tide to victory , Alabama ' s 36 - 0 shutout victory against Auburn in 2008 thus breaking the six - game losing streak and first ever Iron Bowl victory in Bryant – Denny Stadium , and Terrence Cody ' s field goal block against Tennessee as time expired in 2009 . In recent years , Bryant – Denny Stadium has become a feared place to play again . Also Bryant - Denny has been put on many lists ranking it one of the best places to watch football . NCAA Football 11 ranked Alabama ' s Bryant – Denny as the fourth toughest place to play in the nation and third in the SEC behind Florida and LSU . " Sporting News " ranks it first while Bleacher Report has it ranked as the 5th toughest and the 2nd best stadium in the country . Field design . Traditionally speaking , the field design of Bryant – Denny Stadium was much like the field designs of most football stadiums , which generally involved only the necessary field markings required for play . However , as more and more stadiums began to add other designs to the field aside from those required for play , such as logos , Bryant – Denny Stadium chose to remain traditional , having very few field markings . In fact , even on into the 2002 season , Bryant - Denny had no logo at midfield and no logos at the twenty - five yard lines , which are commonplace in many stadiums . The end zones were simply designed as such that the name " ALABAMA " was spelled out in a white , block style font . During the 2002 season , however , a rather large white script A was added to midfield . The field design underwent full scale changes beginning with the 2004 season . At midfield , the large white script A was replaced with the script A logo , which is encircled by a crimson ring which has " Alabama Crimson Tide " written around it . The end zone designs , too , were changed to a crimson , block style font ( though different than the block style font used in the earlier design ) that was outlined in white . For the 2006 season , two identical logos commemorating the 175th anniversary of the founding of the University of Alabama were also added to the field on the twenty - five yard lines . One was added on the south end of the stadium , on the west side of the playing field , while the other was on the north end of the stadium , on the east side of the playing field . For the 2007 season , two identical logos commemorating the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Southeastern Conference were added to home field of every Southeastern Conference team . These were in the same places as the 175th logos were during the 2006 season . For the 2008 season , two identical Southeastern Conference logos were added to the home field of every Southeastern Conference team . These are in the same places as the previous logos . For the 2009 A - day game , the end zones were changed back to the original white block style font that was used prior to the 2004 season , except that the background was shaded crimson . The north end zone displays " ALABAMA " , while the south end zone displays " CRIMSON TIDE " . This design layout has remained in use since the 2009 season . For the 2011 season , two identical houndstooth awareness ribbon s recognizing the on - going relief efforts from the April 27 , 2011 tornado were added to the field on the twenty - five yard lines . Locker rooms . In 2008 , the visitors ' locker room was officially named " The Fail Room " after alumnus and donor James M . Fail . Fail commented , " Earlier this year , when I saw the visitors ' locker room as a potential naming right , I figured it was the most appropriate opportunity I would ever have to use my name . " High school championships . Beginning in 2009 , Bryant – Denny Stadium and Auburn University ' s Jordan - Hare Stadium became the homes of the Alabama High School Athletic Association state football championship games , known as the Super Six . Bryant - Denny hosts the Super Six in odd - numbered years , with Jordan - Hare taking the games in even - numbered years . Previously , the Super Six was held at Legion Field in Birmingham .