Best Stadiums – National List

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Sykotyk | August 28, 2024

Best Stadiums – National

Every year, the topic comes up: What’s the best high school football stadium out there. I’m not an architect, so for the actual structure, it’s more than just the nuts and bolts that make a stadium great. It’s the setting. If the game of football is a play, the stadium is the stage. Where the audience sits may be impeccable, but no one really remembers how beautiful the seats and aisles were when they were watching Phantom of the Opera.

The best stadiums are more than the sum of their parts. They are memorable because they dominate your memories. They can be giant stadiums. They can be small stadiums. They can be concrete, metal, wooden or otherwise. They can be futuristic or modern or decrepit and old. In the end, they are the ones you say to yourself when you see photos of them, “that looks like a cool place to see a game.” And for me, I’ve gotten to see quite a few places.

I’m sure there’s more out there. Such as the Granite Bowl in Elberton, Georgia or Edison (NJ)’s famed rooftop stadium. Fields tucked in city blocks or surrounded by miles of farm land. Towering mountains or shallow valleys. Many that can deserve to make such a list of ‘best stadiums’. With over 16,000 football teams playing this wonderful game called high school football, there’s bound to be some debate. Lists such as these have been made before. But they focus on notables.

Biggest. Loudest. The fans. The quality of the teams on the field. Sure, they will definitely sway your opinion on which game to attend. A blowout in a Taj Mahal or a barnburner in a heap, the game is the game. But this is just the stadiums. And as a fan, all else being equal, where would you like to see a game?

For this exercise, there’s two lists. Inside, and outside, of Pennsylvania. These aren’t the top five. And in no particular order, they are five of the best stadiums you will ever see.

This week, stadiums just outside Pennsylvania. Next Wednesday, look for the list of best stadiums inside Pennsylvania.

ROUND VALLEY DOME, EAGAR, ARIZONA

Originally named the Round Valley Ensphere, though signed as the Round Valley Dome today, the stadium opened in 1991. Home of the Round Valley Elks, the stadium is the ONLY domed high school football stadium. Other high schools may play their games in domes, such as Frisco ISD’s schools sharing time at the Ford Center, or Vermillion (SD) playing at the Dakota Dome, or Cedar Falls (IA) playing at the UNI-Dome. But only one school owns the dome in which they play exclusively. And that’s Round Valley. Built from the proceeds from property taxes on the largest property value in the area, Tucson Electric Power’s generating station, the town sits at 7,090ft elevation. Making a dome in Eastern Arizona not seem frivolous.

It’s also wooden. One of the few wooden domes hosting traditionally outdoor sports. It’s age is apparent. At 33 years young, the stadium has undergone renovations and regular upkeep. Though lighting the facility has given it a distinctive amber hue to go with the home team’s black and yellow uniforms. The stadium feels like a professional venue despite being for a high school. And unlike other small domes in the country, the dome is circular in shape. Not the long arched corridor others are.

More photos can be found HERE.

“THE CLIFF” at SMILEY RATLIFF FIELD, HURLEY, VIRGINIA

The Cliff is an imposing defender for the Hurley Rebels. Guarding the west endzone, The Cliff dominates the horizon in ways rarely seen at a high school stadium. In the small hollers of southwestern Virginia, large plots of flat land are hard to come by. So blasting out a corner of a mountain is little issue for a school building a football field.

Sandwiched right behind the school and in space just large enough to hold the field, Smiley Ratliff Field has been Hurley’s home field.

But this field won’t last forever. Hurley, Grundy, and Twin Valley are scheduled to close after the 2025 season. The new Southern Gap High School will open in the fall of 2026 with a new stadium. So there’s just two seasons left to see a game before the most imposing facades in high school football.

More photos can be found HERE.

“THE STONE CASTLE” BRISTOL MUNICIPAL STADIUM, BRISTOL, TENNNESSEE

Not far from Hurley, along the border between Virginia and Tennessee sit the sister cities of Bristol, Virginia and Bristol, Tennessee. Built in 1936, it hosted both the Virginia High School (Bristol, VA) and Tennessee High School (Bristol, TN) teams as well as Slater High School (Bristol, Tennessee) and Douglas High School (Bristol, Virginia) the two now closed segregated schools.

The stadium is built as a castle. Complete with local stone, the venue is an impressive structure. Completely enclosed with stone walls, watchtowers, turrets, and gatehouse.

More photos can be found HERE.

MONUMENT VALLEY FIELD, MONUMENT VALLEY, UTAH

At the southern border of Utah, just miles from Arizona, sits one of the most spectacular stadiums you’ll ever lay eyes on. But it’s not the stands that will wow you. The simple aluminum structure situated against the school building isn’t the attraction.

It’s what you see sitting in those stands. The famed Monument Valley formations sit in the distance across the field and highway from the school. Located primarily in the Monument Valley Tribal Park, the impressive formations sit formidably as the backdrop to one of the best views you’ll ever see on a Friday night.

Today, if you want to see this venue, you will being watching an 8-man game as Monument Valley was one of the first teams in the state of Utah to join the new 8-man classification.

BUCCANEER FIELD, BEACH, NORTH DAKOTA

If you’re noticing a theme, it’s state border towns that have the best views. Maybe not as impressive as Monument Valley, or as up close as Hurley’s Cliff. But Buccaneer Field west of North Dakota’s underrated Theodore Roosevelt National Park has a panoramic landscape that my photos from the game don’t do justice.

Sitting north of town and just south of the I-94 freeway along the western edge of North Dakota in the aptly named Golden Valley County, Buccaneer Field is home to the Beach Buccaneers. Just miles east of Montana. The stands face east, with a great vista before the attending fans. Sentinel Butte sits to the East-Northeast, with nothing but golden fields stretching into the distance. In late August the rows of round bales dot the landscape.

More photos can be found HERE.

There’s so many stadiums out there that all have good arguments for or against inclusion on this list. But this is my list and I’ve visited all of them to be included. Though Monument Valley was simply passing by. I have stopped twice. Once back in 2013 and again in early 2024. The rest were all for varsity football games.

In previous years, I would have listed Grass Range in Montana. But the slow march of population loss has done in many schools and teams. Just as Hurley is soon to be but a memory, so too is Ryan Field in Grass Range.

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