Located in Hadley, MA, McGuirk Alumni Stadium has been the home to the UMass Minutemen football team since 1965. The stadium was built to replace Alumni Field that was the home of the team from their inception in 1879. On September 25, 1965 UMass played their first game at McGuirk Stadium, a victory over American International College. The stadium is a simple structure with two single level seating decks on both sides of the stadium. It had a seating capacity of 15,000 when opened and has increased slightly since then to meet FBS football standards and now seats 17,000 fans. The Minutemen played all of their games here through the 2011 season. The following season they moved from the FCS division to the FBS division. McGuirk Stadium lacked many of the requirements for the Minutemen to be a part of the FBS division, thus they played all of their games at Gillette Stadium, home of the NFL’s New England Patriots during the 2012 and 2013 seasons. During this time numerous updates were made to McGuirk Stadium, including replacing the existing pressbox with a new multi-level structure that houses luxury suites and a new press area. Beginning in 2014 UMass split their home games between McGuirk Stadium and Gillette Stadium. In 2017 all games were moved back to McGuirk Stadium and the team no longer plays at Gillette Stadium.