Rynearson Stadium

• 799 N. Hewitt Road
• Ypsilanti, MI 48197
• (734) 487-3669
• Website

Working on the east side of the state last Tuesday gave me a chance to do something I haven’t gotten to do in the 17 years I’ve lived in Michigan. See a football game at Eastern Michigan University.

I’ve been to both Waldo Stadium and Kelly/Shorts Stadium in the past but EMU is the MAC school that I haven’t been able to see a game at. I was in Ypsilanti and it was a MACtion night. EMU was playing WMU. Sounds like a good reason to go.

Eastern Michigan University’s football stadium in Rynearson Stadium. It’s on North Hewitt Road south of Huron River Drive. The stadium is the centerpiece of a sports complex that also includes the George Gervin GameAbove Center (basketball arena) Oestrike Stadium (baseball), Scicluna Field (soccer/lacrosse), an indoor practice facility, and tennis courts. The stadium is about a mile and a half from the main campus to the east. While the stadium’s official name is Rynearson Stadium, named after Elton Rynearson, the program affectionately refers to it as “The Factory.”

There is free parking right across Hewitt Road and in the GameAbove Center for season ticket holders. The stadium is a massive structure but it’s kind of off on it’s own away from campus so it’s pretty convenient to access.

The first thing you notice is the stadium is massive. Right when you walk in the gate, you’re met with the large steel beams that hold the structure up. There’s not much of a concourse. It’s literally just the underside of the bleachers.

Concession stands are not built in to the structure on this side. They’re little huts that were built and painted green to match the Eagles colors.

There is a more traditional concession stand with the typical concession stand fare right in the middle of the space.

Like most college stadiums now, Rynearson Stadium offers beer and they’ve partnered with Eastern Market Brewing Company which has a stand under the grandstands.

To give a few more options, they also have a couple of food trucks including one from Little Caesars. These are parked more towards the fence away from the busy portion of the “concourse” area.

The spirit shop is a pop shop a little further down underneath the grandstands as you’re walking towards the south endzone.

If you’re there to support the visiting school, make sure to grab food and beers before heading over to the visitors side. There was another Little Caesars food truck parked in the endzone in front of the GameAbove Center but that’s the closest place to get food on the visitors side.

There are concession stands built into the cinder block structure of the visitor stands but they were not open. This side probably isn’t used very often but on this night, there was a decent crowd because they were playing WMU and WMU was playing for the regular season conference championship….so a lot of people from Kalamazoo showed up. I’m sure it’s not worth stocking and opening up for one night a year.

Like I mentioned earlier, the stadium is massive. There are wayfinding signs to help you get around but because the bulk of this facility was built in the 1960’s, there are some ADA issues getting from the main grand stands to the area behind the endzone near the GameAbove Center.

Access to the actual seating is through portals in the structure. Hallways near the middle of the structure are pretty long while those on the other edges are much shorter walks to get to the seats. Seating near the 50 yard line is all reserved but once you get out of that area, pretty much the whole stadium is general admission.

I keep saying the stadium is massive and it’s kind of needlessly so. The home side of the stadium has the bulk of the seating. The original part of the stadium 61 rows of metal bleachers with the press box and suites on top of it at the 50 yard line.

A wing was added on in the south endzone as part of an expansion to get the stadium up to the minimum seating requirement for (at the time) Division 1A (now FBS) football stadiums. It seems ridiculous to think the NCAA requires a minimum seating requirement because the additions make the stadium look so empty even when there’s a decent sized crowd there. The capacity is just over 30,000 but EMU has never had a sold out crowd. The largest crowd in school history was just over 26,000, or 87% capacity, for a game against Central Michigan in 2008.

Unlike Waldo Stadium or Kelly/Shorts Stadium, there is no seating in the endzones at Rynearson Stadium. This helps contribute to the perception that the stadium is empty when there’s actually a decent crowd. The sideline stands are so much bigger to make up for the lack of seating in the endzone. The unique thing about Rynearson Stadium is that it was one of two MAC stadiums that had a track inside the stadium. That was taken out a couple of years ago when the stadium was renovated after a donation from alumni Maxx Crosby. There is also a tunnel in the south endzone that connects the football stadium to the basketball arena next door.

The visitors bleachers only have about half of the available seating available and this is actually a really smart move. They’re never going to fill them and they put tarps over the seats on the upper portion of the structure with EMU logos. It looks a lot better on TV than just seeing the empty seats. I will, however, say WMU fans traveled pretty well for a Tuesday night game and the visitor stands had a lot of brown and gold.

Rynearson Stadium’s big claim to fame is it’s turf. They’re one of the few FBS schools to have a turf color that isn’t green Boise State is pretty famous for having blue turf but EMU has grey. It’s an odd color choice and it does make it a little difficult to watch when the opposing team is wearing white jersey’s but it’s also one of those unique experiences you can only get in the MAC.

It’s a shame Rynearson Stadium feels so big. It’s not a bad stadium at all. It’s not a bad atmosphere like I expected it to be either. There were quite a few people in the middle portion of the grandstands….on a Tuesday night…with a team that finished 4-8 and near the bottom of the MAC.

It’s a shame they can’t find another use for this stadium. It would have been great for the USFL/USL team instead of the much larger Ford Field. It just doesn’t feel like this stadium could ever sell out unless nearby Michigan came over and played an away non-conference game like Michigan State was supposed to do in 2015.

I feel like Rynearson Stadium gets a bad rep and it’s kind of undeserved. I thought this was a good place to watch a game and was actually kind of surprised by that.