Ladd–Peebles Stadium (formerly Ernest F. Ladd Memorial Stadium) is a football stadium located in Mobile, Alabama. Opened in 1948, it has a seating capacity of 33,471. It is primarily used for American football. In addition to football, the stadium is also used for concerts (maximum capacity 50,000), boxing matches, high school graduations, trade shows, and festivals. Numerous entertainers have performed at Ladd–Peebles Stadium.
In 2004, the stadium selected and installed FieldTurf as its new playing surface.
On December 6, 2008, the Board of Trustees at the University of South Alabama approved adding football to its intercollegiate athletics program. The move came with the announcement that the team would call Ladd–Peebles Stadium home for at least seven years. In 2020, the Jaguars moved to their new on-campus stadium.
The stadium underwent a $2.2 million facelift which also includes the construction of 11 luxury sky boxes on the stadium's west side. The project was finished at the beginning of the 2009 season.
Events
The stadium's first game was in 1948, between the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Vanderbilt Commodores on October 2, From 1948 to 1968, with the exceptions of 1960 and 1962, the Crimson Tide played one game per year in Ladd Stadium. In 1958, Paul "Bear" Bryant coached his first game as Alabama's head coach in Ladd Stadium when the Crimson Tide fell 13–3 to LSU. Notable Tigers that year were Billy Cannon and Johnny Robinson.
The Senior Bowl played its inaugural edition at the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville in January 1950, then moved to Mobile, where it was played in Ladd–Peebles until January 2020. The game moved to the University of South Alabama's on-campus Hancock Whitney Stadium in 2021.
Ladd–Peebles Stadium also played host to numerous other major college games over the years. Auburn played eight games at Ladd from 1948 to 1955, playing the likes of Clemson, Florida, and Ole Miss. The University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg was also a consistent Ladd Stadium tenant, as the Golden Eagles played seventeen games there from 1950 through 1974; opponents included Texas A&M, Florida State, and Alabama.
Beginning in 1974, the stadium began hosting the Gulf Coast Classic, an Alabama State University homecoming game against a fellow Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) opponent.
In 1988, the stadium hosted the first Alabama-Mississippi All-Star Classic, an annual football event that features the best senior high school players and top collegiate prospects from Mississippi against the best from Alabama. The event has since been moved to Montgomery and is now played in December.
In 1999, the self-styled "major league of spring football", the Regional Football League, played its only season. The league champions were the Mobile Admirals, who hosted the RFL Bowl at Land-Peebles on June 20, 1999, and defeated the Houston Outlaws, 14-12, in front of a crowd announced as 5,571. The league folded soon thereafter.
In December 1999, the stadium hosted the inaugural Mobile Alabama Bowl. Held annually since then, the game has undergone several name changes due to sponsorship agreements; it is known as the LendingTree Bowl. Formerly matching teams from the Mid-American Conference and Conference USA, the bowl announced a new agreement in 2009 to annually feature teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Mid-American Conference beginning with the 2010 game.
On August 21, 2015, from 20,000 to 30,000 people gathered at the stadium for a rally for 2016 presidential candidate Donald Trump.