Etc.
Pro football's oldest stadiums have aged without nostalgia
Unlike in baseball, where fans regard old ballparks with a degree of reverence, in football one seldom hears paeans to aged stadiums. With everyone fixated on the game's modern, state-of-art facilities, such as Lucas Oil Stadium, which opened Aug. 16 in Indianapolis, or the new $1 billion Dallas Cowboys stadium that will open in 2009, few probably know the identity of the oldest stadium used by the National Football League. It's Chicago's Soldier Field, which was built in 1924 as a memorial to American soldiers and renovated in 2003. The Bears didn't actually move there until 1971, when the league required all teams to have 50,000 or more seats. Here, as the new NFL season begins, are the league's oldest stadiums, their home teams, and the year they opened :
- Soldier Field* 1924 Chicago Bears
- Alltell Stadium* 1946 Jacksonville Jaguars
- Lambeau Field 1957 Green Bay Packers
- Monster Park 1960 San Francisco 49ers
- McAfee Coliseum* 1966 Oakland Raiders
- Qualcomm Stadium* 1968 San Diego Chargers
- Texas Stadium 1971 Dallas Cowboys
- Arrowhead Stadium 1972 Kansas City Chiefs
- Ralph Wilson Stadium1973 Buffalo Bills
- Superdome 1975 New Orleans Saints
* stadiums that have been renovated
