KINGSTON – The Queen’s Golden Gaels football team will have the honour of playing the first game at the revitalized Richardson Stadium.

While Saturday’s Queen’s-versus-Western Mustangs Ontario University Athletics game will be in the spotlight at the $20-million renovated stadium — including national coverage on the City TV network — a variety of sporting and entertainment events are expected to follow.

“I think it is going to be one of those destination places for a lot of major functions. It is going to be a great, great thing for the city,” predicted Queen’s football head coach Pat Sheahan.

“The potential is here to have major sporting events here. The sightlines are good. We are going to have that potential, no question.”

For the first time in Queen’s football history, the Gaels will play home games on a turf field, one of the many features of the new stadium. A state-of-the-art Jumbotron scoreboard, improved lighting and new amenities are all part of the package.

There is six-foot elevation above the field to where the seating begins and the bowl-style seating is designed to bring fans closer to the field to enhance the spectator experience.

Queen’s has billed the renovated stadium on West Campus as a state-of-the-art multi-purpose facility destined to be the regional hub for outdoor sports.

“It is a very intimate venue, tremendously welcoming with the amenities, the seating, the press box. I could see some CFL teams wanting to do their preseason games here,” Sheahan said.

The Gaels, who have been able to practise on the turf field only for the last week or two, are obviously excited to play the first game at the new stadium.

Originally the game was to be played at night but the kickoff time has been moved up to 1 o’clock for television.

Officials are hoping the stadium, with a capacity of 8,500, will be filled.

“I think it is going to be a great event. This isn’t just a new building. It is a whole new era of football,” Sheahan said.

“There isn’t a bad seat in the house. The kids are all excited to call this their home stadium.”

The original stadium at West Campus opened in 1971. It has played host to several Queen’s football championship wins, the most recent in 2009 when the Gaels set up their Vanier Cup victory over Calgary by beating Western 43-39 in the Yates Cup followed by a 33-30 win over Laval in the Mitchell Bowl.

Two other Yates Cup wins (1977 and 1978) and two Dunsmore Cup victories (1983 and 1989) also took place at the old Richardson Stadium.

Other sporting events held at the stadium over the years include World Cup soccer qualifiers and international rugby matches.

For the record, the final Queen’s touchdown scored on the old grass surface at Richardson was by Doug Corby on an eight-yard pass from Nate Hobbs last October in Queen’s loss to the Carleton Ravens in the OUA playoffs.