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The Home of the Grizzlies

Washington-Grizzly Stadium (capacity 25,217) celebrates its 33rd anniversary in 2019, serving as the home of the Montana Grizzlies since 1986.

The Grizzlies broke the stadium’s all-time attendance record in 2015, packing 26,427 fans in to see UM’s 38-35 win over North Dakota State on ESPN. Griz fans also packed the house for two more of the top-25 all-time attended games in 2015, with 26,137 fans at the homecoming game against NAU, and 26,065 fans in a night game against Cal Poly.

The 2016 Brawl of the Wild game packed 26,182 fans in the stadium, the fifth-highest attended game ever. Montana set three more of the top-25 best attended games ever in 2016 as well.

Montana led the FCS in attendance in 2016 for the third-straight year, and the sixth time in the last decade. UM averaged 25,377 fans per-game over the course of last season's six-game home slate, drawing more fans than 46 FBS programs, and more per-game than the Los Angeles Chargers of the NFL.

The first game played in WGS was on Oct. 18, 1986, a 38-31 come-from-behind win over Idaho State. Since that first contest the Grizzlies have an overall record of 197-30. Montana’s 7-4 mark in 2017 was its 31st winning season over the past 32 years (since the Griz have been playing in Washington-Grizzly Stadium).

Montana has set numerous Big Sky Conference attendance records. The Griz hold the standards for single-season, regular-season home attendance average (26,472 in 2015): and single-season, regular-season total home attendance (174,236, seven games, 2008). UM also holds the league record for the largest crowd at a non-conference road game of 94,661, set at Tennessee in 2011.

Washington-Grizzly Stadium

No Place Like Home

Not only has Montana won 201 games in its 33 seasons of playing in Washington-Grizzly Stadium, it has gone undefeated 11 times.

Starting the 1994 season, the Griz reeled off 30 straight home victories. The win streak began with a 41-7 win over Sonoma State on Sept. 3 and ended with a 40-35 loss to EWU on Oct. 18, 1997. Montana’s 30 consecutive home wins are the fifth longest streak in FCS history.
Renovation and Construction Plans

With support from the university administration and private donors, the athletic facility improvement plan includes the following:

A new academic center was the first of these facility upgrades with construction completed in the summer of 2015. This facility provides student-athletes with ample space to study and meet regularly with their academic advisors. The lower level remains an entrance/exit for the Adams Center and Dahlberg Arena, and houses offices for Montana’s media rights partner, Grizzly Sports Properties.

The next phase of improvements got underway in the summer of 2016 with ground being broke on the Washington-Grizzly Champions Center on the south end of the stadium. The new facility had its grand opening on Oct. 14, 2017. The Washington-Grizzly Champions Center houses a new student-athlete weight room, football locker room, football lounge and football meeting rooms. The weight room and locker room sit below grade and make up the first level while the second level includes a mezzanine for the weight room, the '95 National Championship team meeting room, five other meeting rooms, and a wider concourse in the football stadium complete with additional rest rooms and concession stands.

A new generation of Washington’s, Dennis and Phyllis’s sons Kyle and Kevin, on behalf of the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation, gifted $7 million to the University of Montana’s Department of Athletics to be used for the $14 million Washington-Grizzly Champions Center. It is the largest gift to the Department of Athletics in its history. The remaining $7 million was raised entirely from private sources. No university or state funds were used in this project.

Over the years, the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation has been one of the university’s most generous benefactors. The foundation has given more than $150 million to various causes since it was established in 1988.

A new Griz Vision jumbotron, with ancillary screens to its left and right was installed in the summer of 2016. The new screen features HD-quality video, and measures 32 feet high by 55 feet wide, approximately twice the size of the old display. Featuring live video, team branding and statistics, the video screen will transform the game-day experience at Washington-Grizzly Stadium. The original Griz vision was added in 2002. That screen came to UM from New York City and Times Square. The new Griz vision system was paid for entirely by UM’s media rights partner, Grizzly Sports Properties and Learfield Sports.
New Lights For 2012

New Turf (Field Turf, Revolution 360 with CoolPlay) was installed in the summer of 2016 as well, featuring a #37 insignia at the 37-yard line on the home and visiting sidelines. CoolPlay technology utilizes a layer of cork in the rubber pellets, intended to keep the playing surface as cool as possible on hot days.

New lights were installed in WGS in the spring of 2012. When the Big Sky Conference signed a television contract with ROOT Sports, each school in the league was required to install lights in their stadiums. The new lights, installed by Musco Lighting based in Oskaloosa, Iowa, made their debut on Saturday, April 14, 2012, at UM’s annual spring game.

The lights are of the highest quality available, and feature “horizontal footcandles” in the 120-125 range, which means the Washington-Grizzly Stadium has the ability to host all levels of NCAA televised football playoff games. It also includes lighting in the tailgate/parking areas. The project cost was approximately $950,000, and includes a 25-year or 20,000 hours service agreement.

Stadium Expansions

Washington-Grizzly Stadium underwent its third expansion, at a cost of approximately $6.5 million, prior to the 2008 football season. The eastside expansion houses a 500-seat “Stadium Club” with two membership levels: the “Canyon Room,” which has 125 seats inside and 125 seats outside, and the “Hellgate Terrace,” which has 250 seats.

The expansion in 2008 provided 375 Grizzly Scholarship Association priority seats, as well as 1,150 non-priority seats, and increased the current seating capacity of Washington-Grizzly Stadium to 25,217. A new SprinTurf playing surface was also installed with the expansion in 2008.

The second expansion occurred in the spring and summer of 2003, and approximately 4,000 seats were added to the north end zone section, boosting the stadium capacity to 23,183, with the cost at around $3.5 million.

In the spring of 1995 the stadium underwent its first expansion in the north and south end zones. At that time there were 12,500 permanent seats (weather-permitting, which allowed for seating on the grass in the end zones, which made the capacity around 15,000). The cost of that expansion was about $2.5 million.

A natural-grass stadium gave way to SprinTurf prior to the 2001 season at a cost of about $1 million, which was paid for by an anonymous donor.

Stadium History & Namesake

The plans for an on-campus football facility at Montana came to fruition in August of 1985 when Missoula businessman Dennis R. Washington and the employees of Washington Corporations provided a gift of $1 million, hence the name of Washington-Grizzly Stadium. The initial cost of the stadium was around $3.2 million.

Dennis Washington was brought in early in the process to be among the small group of visionaries who would examine what was possible with the new facility and who better than the man who started with a small loan and a bulldozer in the mid-1960s, turned it into Washington Construction and eventually into the global Washington Companies.

There are 49 private boxes located on the east and west sides of the stadium, and they are individually decorated and furnished.

University of Montana Athletics

Facilities

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