WSU Football: Cougars Should Feel Right At Home In New Mexico’s University Stadium

Dec. 15, 2012; Albuquerque, NM, USA; Overall view of University Stadium during the 2012 New Mexico Bowl between the Arizona Wildcats against the Nevada Wolf Pack. Arizona defeated Nevada 49-48. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

The Washington State Cougars are getting ready for their kickoff 11 days from now against the Colorado State Rams in the New Mexico Bowl. While they stress out about their opponent, they can take solace in the fact that they should feel right at home when they enter the home of the New Mexico Lobos, University Stadium for the game.

The stadium isn’t much bigger than the Cougars’ Martin Stadium (33,000), seating 39,224 during the regular season for New Mexico. The capacity for the bowl game has been reduced, but not significantly, coming down to 37,457. It is a natural grass surface, but the Cougars have been fairly successful this season on natural grass, going 2-1 with wins at USC and Arizona, while losing their season opener to Auburn at Jordan Hare.

WSU was tasked with selling at least 5,000 tickets to the game and as of Monday morning had sold 3,500 of those. Athletic director Bill Moos has said he expects the Cougs to sell somewhere between 5,000 to 6,000 tickets to the football game. The New Mexico Bowl reps liked the prospects of WSU in the bowl as Cougfan explains:

"Jeff Siembieda, executive director of the New Mexico Bowl, is a former Yakima and Tri-Cities sportscaster. Siembieda said he chose the Cougars over defending champion Arizona partly because he believes “Washington State is going to be better” than the Wildcats would have been in terms of fan support at the game."

For more info on New Mexico’s University Stadium, you can go to the stadium info page on the bowl’s homepage.