Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, also known as Owen Field or The Palace on the Prairie, is the football stadium on the campus of the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma. It serves as the home of the Oklahoma Sooners football team. The official seating capacity of the stadium, following renovations before the start of the 2019 season, is 86,112, making it the 22nd largest stadium in the world, the 13th largest college stadium in the United States and the second largest in the Big 12 Conference, behind Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium at the University of Texas at Austin. The stadium is a bowl-shaped facility with its long axis oriented north/south, with both the north and south ends enclosed. The south end has only been enclosed since the 2015-2016 off-season, when it was renovated as part of a $160 million project. Visitor seating is in the south end zone and the southern sections of the east side. The student seating sections are in the east stands, surrounding the 350-member Pride of Oklahoma band which sits in section 29, between the 20- and 35-yard lines. The Sooners' bench was once located on the east side with the students, but the home bench was moved to the west side in the mid-1990s. Early history The first game played at the current stadium site was in 1923, with the Sooners prevailing over Washington University 62–7. Originally, seating consisted of an approximately 500-seat bleacher area on the east side. The first permanent seating wasn't built until 1925, when 16,000 seats were built on the west side of the site–corresponding to the lower level of the current facility's west grandstands. However, OU reckons 1923 as the stadium's opening date. The new stadium was named "Oklahoma Memorial Stadium" in honor of university students and personnel that died during World War I. The facility was constructed at an approximate cost of $293,000, and coach Bennie Owen himself helped raise the money. To honor Owen, the playing surface was named Owen Field during the 1920s. The stadium as a whole has long been called Owen Field, but in actuality the field and the stadium are two separate objects with two separate names. There are two main reasons why the stadium was not originally a fully enclosed "bowl" like, for example, Michigan Stadium or the Rose Bowl. First, access to the three outdoor football practice fields, which are