TIGER STADIUM
TIGER STADIUM Tiger Stadium is the home for the Northeast Mississippi Community College football program. It is located just across Mississippi Highway 145 from the main campus in Booneville. It is constructed of rust-free aluminum with a galvanized understructure and features a pair of closed deck grandstands. Northeast fans sit on the west side while the visitors section is to the east. The west bleachers are 26 rows high and are crowned by a 72-feet long pressbox and president’s box. The pressbox services sports information representatives from Northeast and its guests, scoreboard operators, the public address announcer and members of the working media. The seating capacity at Tiger Stadium is 5,200, which makes it one of the largest among venues inside the Mississippi Association of Community Colleges (MACCC). Northeast selected “Mississippi Choice” as the playing surface for Tiger Stadium. It is a very dark green, compact, leafy, prostrate turf that is designed specifically for athletic fields, home lawns and golf courses. Tiger Stadium was originally constructed in 1981. Since that time a building on the south border of the facility was constructed to house the ticket booth, concession stand and restrooms. A state-of-the-art fieldhouse was erected adjacent to the north end zone in 2014. It provides dressing quarters for Northeast and the opposing team plus a weight room with completely new equipment, a storage area and space for athletic training. Northeast is not the only gridiron squad that Tiger Stadium hosts. Nearby Booneville High School uses the venue for its home matchups on Friday nights as well. It also welcomes some of the top performers in the Southeast each fall for the annual Dixie Marching Band Championships presented by Northeast’s Showband from Tigerland. Awards are presented to six high school classifications plus an overall grand champion is crowned at the conclusion of a full afternoon of acts. Tiger Stadium was immersed into pop culture in July 2014. Country music lovers gathered in droves to the City of Hospitality in July 2014 when rising star Mitch Rossell filmed the music video for his single “God, Girls, and Football.” Both Northeast and Booneville suited up over the two-day period for a fictitious game that featured big plays and some hard hit to make the video as authentic as possible. Rossell’s album entitled I Got Dressed Up For This debuted at No. 27 on the iTunes Top 100 Country Albums list.
46 | NEMCCATHLETICS.COM
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