Davis Wade Stadium Davis Wade Stadium is the home playing venue for the Mississippi State Bulldogs football team . Located in Starkville , Mississippi , the stadium has a capacity of 55 , 082 . It is the second - oldest stadium in the Football Bowl Subdivision , behind Georgia Tech ' s Bobby Dodd Stadium . History . The stadium was built in 1914 as Scott Field and was named for Don Magruder Scott , an Olympic sprinter and one of the University ' s first football stars . It originally seated 20 , 000 fans in what is roughly the lower half of the current facility . Construction projects in 1936 and 1948 resulted in a concrete grandstand structure with a capacity of 35 , 000 . In 1983 , the endzone seating was removed , reducing the capacity to 32 , 000 . A 1986 expansion costing $ 7 . 2 million , raised without state budget appropriations , added almost 9 , 000 seats , consisting primarily of a 5 , 500 - seat upper deck as well as permanent lighting and a computerized scoreboard which was replaced in 1997 with a Sony JumboTron . The Frank Turman Fieldhouse received an additional floor to its facility in 1990 . Named the Leo W . Seal M - Club Centre , the addition was named in honor of Leo W . Seal , Sr . , a two - year letterwinner at State , is a meeting place for the letterman organization , the M - Club . In 1999 , the Turman Fieldhouse underwent numerous changes , including remodeled dressing rooms for both teams , and an all - new recruiting lounge . In 1999 , the stadium began a $ 50 million expansion and renovation bankrolled by Floyd Davis Wade , Sr . , cofounder and director of Aflac , which was completed in 2002 . As a result , the stadium was renamed Davis Wade Stadium in his honor in 2000 . The playing surface is still known as Scott Field . As part of the project , the stadium was turned into a horseshoe seating 55 , 082 — including 50 skyboxes , 1 , 700 club - level seats and a second upper deck seating 7 , 000 . The first Division I - A college football game played post 9 - 11 was in this stadium between Mississippi State and the South Carolina Gamecocks on September 20 , 2001 , and broadcast on ESPN . In Fall 2008 , in the south endzone , above the Leo Seal M - Club Centre , construction finished on an all - new $ 6 . 1 million wide by tall high - definition video display board to replace the JumboTron that was installed in the north endzone in 1997 . The LED video system is the seventh largest high - definition video board in college football . The new board was used for the first time on November 1 , 2008 , during the Mississippi State Bulldogs vs . Kentucky Wildcats football game . The main video display is complemented with two high definition LED advertising boards on each side of the main board , as well as a high definition LED " ribbon ticker " which spans the width of the structure below the main board . Therefore , the total video board square footage ( on one structure ) is 6 , 896 sq . ft . To complement the all - new video system , a new state - of - the - art sound system has been installed by Pro Sound , headquartered in Miami , Florida . Since October 2009 , Davis Wade Stadium has seen twenty - one consecutive sellouts , a stretch of two seasons and an increase in season ticket sales . The stadium ' s attendance record was broken twice during the 2009 season , including the Florida ( 57 , 178 ) and Alabama ( 58 , 103 ) games . Before the 2012 Season Mississippi State announced plans for a 75 million dollar expansion . The expansion will increase the capacity of the stadium to 61 , 337 , create new concessions and restrooms , and create a new west side concourse . Part of the expansion includes sealing off the north endzone and installing a large high definition video board , similar to the one in the south endzone . Mississippi State says construction will begin at the end of the 2012 season and should be completed before the 2014 season . The project is being handled by the architecture firms LPK and 360 Architecture .