Planning and construction In 1923, TCU received a private donation from
Mary Couts Burnett, the widow of a wealthy and well known Texas rancher. The Burnett donation constituted the egg for TCU's endowment. One condition of the Burnett donation was that a portion of it would be used for the construction of a new library, and it was decided to build the
Mary Couts Burnett Library where the school's athletic field, Clark Field, was then located. The removal of Clark Field necessitated the construction of a new field for athletic competition, especially in the sport of football. TCU played its first season of football in 1896, and since then had built a reputation of excellence garnering national attention, and joined the
Southwest Conference in 1923. In 1928, the school received a private financial donation from
Amon G. Carter, publisher of the
Fort Worth Star-Telegram and a fervent
civic booster of Fort Worth in general. Carter asked Andrew Poyar, one of the designers of Shields-Watkins Field (now
Neyland Stadium) at the
University of Tennessee, to create the blueprints for the structure. Amon Carter stadium was constructed from 1929 to 1930 with an original
seating capacity of 22,000. The stadium hosted its first football game on October 11, 1930, when TCU defeated the
University of Arkansas. In the 1930s under head coach
Dutch Meyer, the Horned Frogs won national championships in 1935 and 1938.
Expansion The first expansion of the stadium took place in 1948, with construction raising the capacity by 8,500 to a total of 30,500. In 1951 and 1953, 2,500 and 4,000 more seats were added which raised capacity to 37,000 seats. An upper deck, topped by a two-story press box and highlighted with a large stylized "TCU", was added in 1956. This brought the stadium's capacity to 46,083. In 1985 and 1991, improvements were made to the seating. This involved replacing the old seats in the lower bowl with aluminum bleachers. The upper-deck seats were later replaced in the same way. This reduced the stadium capacity to 44,008 spectators. In 1992, the artificial turf, which had been in place since 1973, was replaced with natural grass. In 2002, the David E. Bloxom, Sr. Foundation helped install a new scoreboard and videoboard. New club seats and luxury suites were added prior to the 2008 season, increasing capacity to 44,358, and again in 2020.
Renovation/Reconstruction In August 2010, TCU announced a $105 million renovation of the west side and north end zone of Amon G. Carter Stadium to better enhance football fans' experience, upgrade amenities, and transform the historic Fort Worth icon into the "
Camden Yards" of collegiate football stadiums. The planned renovation quickly expanded into a rebuild of the entire stadium above ground level, and partially below. Only the below-ground-level playing field and lower seating bowl were retained. Everything else, including much of the subterranean infrastructure, was rebuilt. The West-side stands were imploded on December 5, 2010, and the East-side stands were demolished during the early winter 2011. The stadium reconstruction was funded completely by donor support (no bonds or debt). The project was fully completed in 2012 at a total cost of $164 million. In 2019 the stadium underwent an additional $118 million East side expansion. ==Features==