Ohio Stadium

About Ohio Stadium

Ohio Stadium has a seating capacity of 102,780, making it the third-largest college football stadium in America. It sits on the banks of the Olentangy River at the Ohio State University campus in Columbus, about three miles north of downtown. On a fall Saturday when the Buckeyes take the field and Script Ohio wraps up, there aren’t many louder places on Earth.

Known as The Horseshoe for its distinctive open-ended shape, the stadium has been home to Ohio State Buckeyes football since 1922. The south end of the bowl was left open by design, originally facing the river, giving the stadium its signature silhouette. Over 100 years later, it remains one of the most recognizable shapes in college sports.

Beyond football, Ohio Stadium hosted the 2025 NHL Stadium Series (Blue Jackets vs. Red Wings), international soccer friendlies including Manchester City vs. Chelsea in 2024, and concerts from Pink Floyd to the Rolling Stones. The stadium was the first football venue listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

Getting to Ohio Stadium

Public Transit

COTA (Central Ohio Transit Authority) runs multiple bus routes near Ohio Stadium on game days. Routes 1, 2, 8, 22, 31, and 102 serve the campus area with frequent service.

Note: Ohio State’s regular free campus buses are suspended on game days. The football shuttles and COTA public transit are your transit options.

Driving + Parking

Ohio Stadium is accessible from I-71 and Route 315. GPS users should enter “411 Woody Hayes Drive, Columbus, OH 43210.”

Campus parking is tiered: Premiere lots ($60), Proximity lots ($40), and Non-Proximity lots ($30). All payments are credit card or smartphone only, with no cash accepted. Lots open at 5 AM. The free football shuttle connects West Campus lots to the stadium if you want to park farther out and skip the traffic.

Rideshare

Uber and Lyft have two designated zones on game days: Borror Drive near the Schottenstein Center (primary) and 19th Avenue & Neil Avenue (secondary). Streets around the stadium are blocked to rideshare vehicles during events.

Pro tip: Set your pin to Borror Drive for drop-off. After the game, walk to one of the designated zones rather than trying to get picked up right outside the stadium.

From the Airport

Construction & Design

Howard Dwight Smith solved a problem nobody had cracked before: how to seat tens of thousands of people without pushing the back row a quarter-mile from the field. His answer, drawn up while he was teaching architecture at Ohio State, was a double-deck concrete bowl, the first of its kind in America, with an upper deck cantilevered out over the lower so the seats leaned toward the action instead of away from it. When it opened in 1922, Ohio Stadium was the largest poured concrete structure in the world. The American Institute of Architects gave Smith its Gold Medal for the design.

The horseshoe was deliberate. Smith left the south end open, originally toward the Olentangy River, partly for the look and partly to let a running track pass through. The shape became the building’s identity. A century and several expansions later, the south end still gaps open, because closing it would mean closing The Horseshoe, and nobody in Columbus would stand for that.

There was a catch the blueprints could not hide. The site sat on the Olentangy flood plain, so crews built a slurry wall to hold the river back before they poured a single seat. The concrete came from the Marble Cliff Quarry Company, ground was broken on August 3, 1921, and the E. H. Latham Company of Columbus finished the $1.34 million job in about fourteen months. The original bowl held 66,210. Smith also tucked a small piece of Rome into the north end: the rotunda there, with its stained glass murals, was modeled on the dome of the Pantheon, a flourish most fans walk past on their way to their seats.

The modern stadium is mostly the work of one enormous project. The 1998-2001 renovation cost $194 million, replaced the press box, added 81 luxury suites and 2,500 club seats, ripped out the running track, and lowered the entire playing field 14.5 feet (4.4 m) to wedge in more rows. That pushed capacity past 100,000 for the first time. Upgrades kept coming: a $7 million Panasonic scoreboard in 2012 measuring 124 by 42 feet, then 2,500 more south-stand seats and permanent corner lights in 2014.

The grass has changed more often than the concrete. Natural turf until 1970, AstroTurf through the 1980s, back to grass for the 1990s and early 2000s, then FieldTurf, and since 2022 a Shaw Sports surface playing under a sponsor’s name, Safelite Field. The bowl is more than a hundred years old. The field it frames is brand new.

Legacy of Ohio Stadium

Ohio Stadium is the emotional center of one of college football’s largest fan bases, and it has been for over a century. The traditions here have been building for generations, and they are as much a part of the experience as the game itself.

Script Ohio is the signature. The Ohio State Marching Band, known as “The Best Damn Band in the Land,” forms the word “Ohio” in flowing cursive across the field, and a senior sousaphone player dots the i. It has been happening since 1936. Special guests who have earned the honor include Bob Hope, Jack Nicklaus, and astronaut John Glenn. On game day, the moment the i is dotted, 102,000 people roar as one.

The rivalry with Michigan defines the season every November. The 2016 edition drew the stadium’s all-time record crowd of 110,045. Tailgating spreads across every available surface on campus. And when the Buckeyes win, especially against That Team Up North, the south end of The Horseshoe becomes a sea of scarlet.

History of Ohio Stadium

Ohio Stadium opened on October 7, 1922, and quickly became the heart of Buckeye football. The milestones since trace the growth of both the building and the program.

• First Game (October 7, 1922): Ohio State defeated Ohio Wesleyan 5-0 before a crowd of 72,000 in the stadium’s inaugural game.
• Dedication Game (October 21, 1922): Michigan defeated Ohio State 19-0 in the first “The Game” at the new stadium.
• National Register of Historic Places (1974): Ohio Stadium became the first football stadium to receive this distinction.
• $194 Million Renovation (1998-2001): The field was lowered 14.5 feet, 81 luxury suites and 2,500 club seats were added, the running track was removed, and capacity reached 101,568.
• All-Time Attendance Record (November 26, 2016): Ohio State vs. Michigan drew 110,045 fans, the largest crowd in stadium history.
• 100th Anniversary (October 1, 2022): Ohio Stadium celebrated its centennial during the Ohio State vs. Rutgers game.
• NHL Stadium Series (March 1, 2025): The Columbus Blue Jackets defeated the Detroit Red Wings 5-3 in the first hockey game ever played at The Horseshoe.

Sources & Further Reading

• Ohio State University Alumni Magazine: alumnimagazine.osu.edu. A profile of architect Howard Dwight Smith and the design of The Horseshoe.
• Upper Arlington Historical Society on Howard Dwight Smith: uahistory.org. Biography of the architect and his work as University Architect at Ohio State.
• Wikipedia entry on Howard Dwight Smith: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Dwight_Smith. The AIA Gold Medal for Ohio Stadium and his wider career.
• Wikipedia entry on Ohio Stadium: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_Stadium. Construction history, the slurry wall, renovations, surface changes, and attendance records.