American Legion Memorial Stadium is a 10,500-seat stadium located on 7th Street in the Elizabeth community of Charlotte, North Carolina. It is located on a complex with the Grady Cole Center. Both are located next to Central Piedmont Community College. Independence Park Stadium, a tiny public baseball stadium, is also close by. Memorial Stadium is mainly used for high school sporting events and also serves as a public venue. Before the construction of nearby Bank of America Stadium in 1996, Memorial Stadium was Charlotte's largest outdoor stadium, and is still the largest municipal venue in the city. History Ground was broken on the stadium in 1934 and the gates were officially opened two years later in 1936. Named in honor of local soldiers who fell in World War I, the stadium was a project of the Works Progress Administration. Throughout the years the stadium hosted events of every kind, ranging from Presidential addresses to classic professional wrestling encounters featuring local hero Ric Flair. The stadium formerly hosted Charlotte (Central) High School (which is now Garinger). For many years afterward, as the city grew and opened more high schools, the stadium was used practically every week during the football season to accommodate both schools which had no campus stadium and large crowds which some campus stadiums could not contain for the more popular match-ups. In February 1985, the stadium hosted a pair of preseason United States Football League (USFL) games, which the city hoped would attract an expansion team. The first game on February 2 saw the New Jersey Generals defeat the Memphis Showboats 16–3, while the Baltimore Stars beat the Tampa Bay Bandits 28–26 on February 16. The Generals–Showboats game drew just 11,667 fans due to rain compared to the approximately 20,000 who attended the Bandits–Stars meeting in sunny weather. From 1937 to 2000, the stadium hosted the Shrine Bowl, which was an annual match-up of the top high school football players in North Carolina and South Carolina. Sometime during the 1960s and 1970s, Memorial Stadium gained upper level seating on both sides of the field, raising its capacity to over 20,000. For the past few years the stadium has hosted several band competitions. It has hosted the battle of the Bands between the biggest HBCUs in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia, and hosted Drum Corps International competitions hosted by Carolina Crown. The stadium also served as a neutral