Sun Bowl
Overview
The Sun Bowl is a legendary, world-famous 51,500-seat outdoor football stadium carved spectacularly into the rugged, solid-rock foothills of the Franklin Mountains on the campus of UTEP. Opened in 1963, this unique architectural marvel serves as the home stadium for the UTEP Miners football team and hosts the prestigious annual Sun Bowl Game, America's second-oldest college football bowl tradition. Sports tourists can experience an electrifying, high-energy event atmosphere enhanced by exceptional views of the rocky mountain bluffs and the glowing desert sunset. Hosting massive international stadium concert tours, passionate athletic championships, and historic college match-ups, it stands proudly as an iconic civic monument to competitive sports excellence and endurance.
Practical Info
Travel Tips
- Pack sports apparel inside an approved 12x6x12 inch clear vinyl tote exclusively; traditional opaque nylon rucksacks and professional padded camera cases are completely rejected at stadium turnstiles.
- Avoid unscheduled walk-ups during non-event months, as the bowl structure is locked inside the secure UTEP campus automated barrier grids and requires university authorization code clearance.
- Allot a 2.5-hour driving buffer when entering the UTEP perimeter during the annual Sun Bowl game in December to successfully bypass military-style highway lane vector closures.
Reviews
- A legendary mega-stadium carved directly into the rocky granite of the Franklin Mountains; its sunken, Roman Colosseum-like visual impact is unmatched.
- Home of the iconic annual Sun Bowl game and stadium concerts; packing world-class acoustics and massive video screens for an intensely electric atmosphere.
- The venue excels in emergency crowd flow management and high security; entries are clear and efficient, and every level features prominent seating signage.
- Superbly set within the unique Bhutanese-style UTEP campus, offering great highway access and fully equipped with modern accessible passenger elevators.
- On major game days, parking fees across the campus and private lots spike to extortionate premium levels; stadium concessions are also aggressively overpriced.
- As a completely unsheltered, open-air stone bowl stadium, afternoon seats bake under the desert sun with zero shade canopies, making the heat distress severe.
- The mass dispersal post-game clogs narrow hillside exit roads, trapping the university district in a catastrophic driving gridlock that lasts for hours.
- On regular non-game days, strict facility management keeps the entire complex locked behind high chain-link fencing, turning away casual tourists wanting photos.