Yale Bowl The Yale Bowl is a football stadium in New Haven , Connecticut on the border of West Haven , about 1½ miles west of Yale ' s main campus . Completed in 1914 , the stadium seats 61 , 446 , reduced by renovations from the original capacity of 70 , 869 . It is home to the Yale University football team ( the Yale Bulldogs ) , and also hosted the New York Giants of the National Football League from 1973 - 1974 while the original Yankee Stadium was being renovated and Giants Stadium was under construction . It is currently the third - largest stadium by capacity in the second tier of college football , NCAA Division I FCS , and the largest actually owned by the school itself ( Georgia State University , which uses the Georgia Dome in Atlanta , and Tennessee State University , who plays at LP Field in Nashville , rent larger stadiums used by NFL teams in their home cities ) . Ground was broken on the stadium in August 1913 . It was built by excavating the field area and then building up a berm around the perimeter with the excavated earth to create an elliptical bowl . It was the first bowl - shaped stadium in the country , and provided inspiration for the design of such stadiums as the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum , the Rose Bowl , and Michigan Stadium . Through its inspiration of the Rose Bowl stadium , its name is also the origin of college football ' s bowl games . The current scoreboard ( notable for the time clock being arranged vertically instead of horizontally ) was added in 1958 , and in 1986 the current press box was added . It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1987 . The facility was designed to partially echo the campus ' s neogothic design . As such , parts of the façade were treated with acid to imitate the effects of aging , a procedure that has instead required constant upkeep and renovation to prevent deterioration . As of summer , 2005 , many of the outside retaining walls and portal entries were deteriorating as a result . However , in the spring and summer of 2006 , the bowl underwent a partial renovation , which was finished just in time for the Yale home - opener on Saturday , September 16 , 2006 . During the 1970s , the " Bowl " hosted several concerts . The Grateful Dead played a notable show here on July 31 , 1971 which was released as Road Trips Volume 1 Number 3 . The June 14 , 1980 concert featuring the Eagles , Heart , and The Little River Band proved to be the final concert for the venue , as opposition from neighbors became increasingly vehement . A picture from this final show can be seen in packaging of the vinyl edition of the Eagles double live album , issued later that year , though no recordings from the event are included on the discs . A planned Paul McCartney concert was scheduled for June 1990 , but because of neighborhood opposition the New Haven show was cancelled and the date was rescheduled for Chicago . The stadium has hosted many soccer matches over the years and served as home field for the Connecticut Bicentennials of the during the 1976 and 1977 seasons . Yale Bowl was a candidate as a possible playing site when the United States hosted the World Cup in 1994 . However , two other venues in the region were chosen instead : Foxboro Stadium in Massachusetts and Giants Stadium in New Jersey . On Friday , October 5 , 2001 , the closing ceremony of the Yale Tercentennial was held at the Yale Bowl . Guests included Tom Wolfe ' 57 , William F . Buckley ' 50 , Mike Ucci ' 03 , " Sesame Street " ' s Big Bird , Paul Simon ' 96 , and Garry Trudeau ' 70 . The Cullman - Heyman Tennis Center , home to the annual ATP / WTA event ( the Pilot Pen tournament ) , is located across Yale Avenue from the stadium .