Martin Stadium is an outdoor athletic stadium in the northwest United States, on the campus of Washington State University in Pullman, Washington. It is the home field of the Washington State Cougars of the Pac-12 Conference.
Its full name is Gesa Field at Martin Stadium due to Richland-based Gesa Credit Union signing a 10-year sponsorship deal in 2021 for the playing surface; it has used artificial turf since its inception in 1972, with infilled FieldTurf used since 2000.
History
The stadium is named after Clarence D. Martin (1886–1955), the governor of the state of Washington (1933–41), a former mayor of Cheney and 1906 graduate of the University of Washington. His son, Dan (Clarence D. Martin, Jr., 1916–1976), made a $250,000 donation to the project in January 1972 under the stipulation that the stadium be named after his father. Additional gifts were continued by Dan's widow, Charlotte Martin; $250,000 in 1978 and $150,000 in 1979.
Martin Stadium opened in 1972 on September 30, with a 19-point loss to Utah, then a member of the WAC, with 20,600 in attendance. Two and a half years had passed since the south grandstand and press box of its predecessor, the wooden Rogers Field, was significantly damaged by fire, a suspected case of arson. The WSU Cougars played all of their home games at Joe Albi Stadium in Spokane in 1970 and 1971. Aside from those two years, the Cougars have played at the site of Martin Stadium since 1895.
In its first season in 1972, only the south grandstand, press box, lights, and artificial turf were new; the remaining sections from Rogers (north sideline and east end zone) were replaced later. The seating capacity in 1972 was 22,600; the wooden north stands were demolished after the 1974 season, and the new concrete grandstand expanded the seating to 26,500 for 1975. (1975 aerial photo) The east end zone seats from Rogers were finally replaced in 1999. The stadium has an unorthodox east–west alignment; north-south is conventional (e.g. Joe Albi).
After renovations in 2003, seating capacity was reduced to 35,117, and was 32,952 in 2014. Since the expansion of Reser Stadium at Oregon State in 2005, Martin Stadium fell to last in football seating capacity in the Pac-10, and is last in the Pac-12. The current attendance record was set during the championship year of 1997, when WSU beat Stanford on Senior Day in front of 40,306 on November 15. (They won the Apple Cup at Husky Stadium in Seattle the following week to win the Pac-10, and played in the Rose Bowl for the first time in 67 years.)
Despite its relatively small size, Martin Stadium has one of the highest ratios of seating capacity to population base; almost 1.1 seats per every citizen in the city of Pullman, and one for most in Whitman County. Following a 10–3 season and an undefeated home campaign in 2003, it was ranked by Sports Illustrated as one of the toughest stadiums for visiting teams in college football.
On March 12, 2021, WSU announced that the Washington State Board of Regents had approved a 10-year, $11 million minimum deal with Gesa Credit Union, a Richland-based financial institution, to sponsor the playing surface at the stadium. The deal had the surface renamed to Gesa Field; it did not include naming rights to the stadium.
1979 expansion
Martin Stadium was among the first college football stadiums to expand by removing its running track and lowering the playing field, in this case by . This modification in 1979 added over 12,000 new seats, most of which were closer to the field (and the opponent's bench). The first game following the renovation was played in mid-October, a victory over UCLA under sunny skies.
The Mooberry Track was constructed north of the stadium, then the site of the old Bailey baseball field, with home plate at the northwest corner. Baseball was relocated northeast, toward the golf course, to Bailey–Brayton Field. The original plan was for the track to occupy that space, but soil issues caused a revision. The new track debuted in the spring of 1980 and hosted its first event on May 3, a decisive dual-meet win over rival Washington.
