Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium - East Carolina Pirates
- Aaron S. Terry
- Sep 21
- 7 min read
Updated: 1 day ago
Photos by Aaron S. Terry , Stadium Journey
Stadium Info FANFARE Score: 4.00
Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium 100 Ficklen Dr Greenville, NC 27858
Year Opened: 1963
Capacity: 51,000
No Quarter in Greenville
Everybody loves Pirates, especially East Carolina football fans, and that love translates into a great game day experience at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium in Greenville, NC. The festivities now include fireworks during pre-game and whenever the Pirates score, as well as the mascot riding in on a John Deere gator. But the highlight of the day might just be the start of the fourth quarter, when the black pirate flag in the northwest end zone is replaced with the red “No Quarter” flag – more on that later.
Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium opened in 1963 and currently holds 51,000 rowdy ECU Pirates fans – their tagline is Rowdy at Dowdy. The stadium has been renovated multiple times since its construction, most recently in 2019 when a brand new, massive five-story press box replaced the outdated structure that had been there before, among other enhancements. Earlier renovations included adding an enormous video board to the southeast end zone, as well as replacing some of the bleacher seating with purple chairbacks in the center sections on the north and south sides.
Food & Beverage 3
There are all manner of food and beverage options available at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, including a few food trucks; the problem is that some of the prices are high, and the lines are very long. The venue does have a couple of grab-and-go lines, which are supposed to speed things along, but they don’t help very much.
Main dishes include stadium basics like hot dogs, burgers, brats, chicken tenders, and pizza, but since this is North Carolina, you can also find pulled pork nachos or Buffalo chicken nachos if you prefer. Hot dogs are pretty reasonably priced (by sports stadium standards, anyway) at $4.69, while a slice of Pizza Hut pizza is $8.99, and the aforementioned “fancy” nachos are $11.99 – all fair, relatively speaking.
Pretzels, however, are $7.49, burgers start at $9.49, and chicken tenders with waffle fries come in at a whopping $13.79. It is also hard to find what you want here, as everything seems to be sold by different stands. Burgers, for example, are only available from certain Black Sail grill stands, while pizza/chicken tenders are only available from specific stands that sell only that item. We ended up settling for brats because all the other lines were way too long.
Besides main dishes, there are smaller/snack items, such as basic nachos (i.e., just tortilla chips and cheese sauce), popcorn, and packaged candy at the bargain price (again, relatively speaking) of $3.99. You can also find peanuts for a little more, as well as drinks such as bottled water, bottled or fountain soda in a souvenir cup (Pepsi products), and beer, mostly domestics but also including Bold Rock Berry, which I hadn’t seen before at a stadium. I didn’t see anything in the way of dessert-type items, even though I walked around the concourse more than once.
Atmosphere 5
A Pirates game at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium is absolutely rockin’ – for certain games, the fun starts with a flyover by jets from nearby Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, and the inclusion of fireworks before kickoff only adds to the fun. The team comes onto the field accompanied by cones of fire in front of their team tunnel, and the dance team joins the action by twirling flaming batons of their own.
The pirate theme, of course, is ever-present, and definitely leaned into by the staff – there is a great statue of a pirate captain with his cannon outside/above Gate 4, which you can get a picture of, and even the scoreboard things like a skeleton doing the wave during certain big moments during the game.
A pirate flag flies at full mast behind the northwest end zone, replaced by the red “No Quarter” flag at the beginning of the fourth quarter – they call this a Red Warning, and the red flag’s hoisting is accompanied by eerie music, special lighting effects, and graphics on the video board; they also add purple and gold banners to the mast as an accoutrement to the red flag. There is also a person dressed in a full pirate costume, with their own cannon, situated behind the northwest end zone, as well as the costumed version patrolling the other sidelines.
The highlight of my visit, however, was visiting the video room on the ground floor of the south concourse – located midway along that side, you can walk past a bank of windows showing a bunch of TV screens with different games on them, and you can literally look in and watch the production staff doing their work during the game.
Better yet, if you get there early, you can actually GO INSIDE, meet the staff, and check out the equipment, including seeing the servers, the joysticks used to control all the different cameras, etc. – nowhere else have I seen regular fans be able to get such a behind-the-scenes look. Totally amazing, absolutely the best part of a visit to Dowdy-Ficklen.
Neighborhood 3
If you are looking for a place to hang out before or after a Pirates game in Greenville, I would highly recommend Kickback Jack’s; they have a seafood platter that is to die for. Mellow Mushroom is also a popular semi-local choice, as are Nashville Hot Chicken and Red Robin.
There are plenty of hotels in town, although none are within 2 miles of the stadium; most of them are located along Highway 13 to the west of Dowdy-Ficklen, or along the Highway 264 loop that circles the city.
Fans 4
During my most recent visit, the Pirate faithful enjoyed a near sellout, with wall-to-wall gold filling almost the entire stadium (except for the visitors in section 12 and part of section 13). They were loud and rowdy well into the third quarter, until the game unfortunately started getting away from the home team.
The student section is behind the southeast end zone, on both sides of the band. The students have a lot of spirit and caused the visiting team to commit several false start penalties, thanks to the noise they generated.
Access 3
Getting to the vicinity of Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium is not bad – the major freeways end before you get to Greenville, but will get you pretty close, with I-95 to the west and I-40 to the south/west of the city. In the future, it should get even easier, however, as Highway 264, which runs through the center of town, appears to be turning into I-87.
Parking, however, gets pretty hairy – there are, of course, pass lots right next to the stadium itself; the rest of us should look for cash lots to the south or west of the stadium, where you can park for $20 to $25, any of which will mean at least a half-mile walk to the venue, however.
Surprisingly, there is some street parking, though, so you may actually be able to park for free – I ended up parking on Cotanche Street, which dead ends at a railroad track. There is a strip mall right next to that, the Charles Boulevard Shopping Center, which had a sign offering $25 parking, but I saw no one actually taking money, so you may be able to park there for free.
There are plenty of other streets in this area where you can park as well, and I actually recommend parking near there – this area is about half a mile directly to the northwest of Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, and will take you right past Minges Coliseum to the open end of the seating bowl (Gate 5 for Sections 12 thru 22 and Gate 4 for Sections 1 thru 11), allowing you to easily access either side.
Moving around the concourse is not ideal – for some reason, they decided to number the sections from 12 to 31 and then started over with 1 to 11, meaning sections 11 and 12 are on opposite sides of the stadium. You also are not allowed to walk across the open end, meaning you have to walk all the way around to get to the other side. All that said, pay attention to where you are sitting so you can enter at the right gate, since the numbering is not obvious.
Return on Investment 5
I would absolutely recommend attending an East Carolina Pirates game at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium; despite the challenges with access and some of the concession pricing, it is well worth a visit. The fireworks and opening pyrotechnics are a great touch, the different flags are a plus, and the multiple mascots/pirate theme really make for a fun day. Tickets should run about $45 each if you buy directly from the school, or a little more if you buy from a third-party site. If you can park for free, all the better.
Extras 5
Continuing the pirate theme, a cannon is shot off when the home team scores, and the ECU logo is superb – a skull overlaid on top of a purple and gold rendering of the state of North Carolina. The gold and purple coloration also really pops on the field, and there are multiple team gear stands on both sides of the concourse, so you can get your pirate on. There are also hydration stations dotted around the concourse to help fans make sure they can stay safe during the game.
Final Thoughts
It is totally worth the trip to Greenville to see Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium and the ECU Pirates, even if you are not from the area. While there are more well-known teams from a “better” conference nearby, I am not sure you will have as much fun at them – after all, to Err is Human, but to Arr is Pirate.
Comments