Photos by Aaron S. Terry, Stadium Journey
Stadium Info FANFARE Score: 2.29
Knights Football Field Magnolia Dr Laurinburg, NC 28352
NC Knights
The St. Andrews Knights football team began in 2017 – the team is a football-only member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Mid-South Conference. Located in Laurinburg, North Carolina, the team colors are blue and white; they play their home games at Knights Football Field on campus.
Food & Beverage 4
Knights Football Field has some pretty solid concessions, in the form of multiple food trucks dotted around the field – options include a truck selling fried fish, a Domino’s Pizza truck, a Kona Ice truck, and a truck from Krazy Kuzzins which sells hot dogs, nachos, small snacks, and drinks. Prices are very much on the low side (hot dogs for $3 and bottled water for $1, for example), so you won’t have to break the bank to eat at the game.
Atmosphere 1
There aren’t many frills at Knights Football Field – the scoreboard doesn’t have a video screen, and all the seats are bleachers without backs. There is also no mascot and no cheerleaders/dance team, although there is a statue of a knight with a sword, in front of one of the campus buildings nearby. You will see a lot of tents along the sidelines, mostly blue, where the coaching and other staff watch from and keep their equipment.
Neighborhood 2
Laurinburg, NC has a population of about 15,000. Knights Football Field is located near a hospital, but there are also a few restaurants and hotels within sight of the field, which are close enough to walk to if you want to. There is a Captain D’s seafood across the street, as well as a Dollar Tree and an IGA if you need to pick up anything.
There is also a Taco Bell and a couple of hotels on the other side of the highway from the venue – you may want to drive to those, however, as walking across the highway may not be the safest. There are a couple of parks in town, as well as a disc golf course; the nearest big city is Fayetteville, NC, about an hour’s drive from St. Andrews.
Fans 2
St. Andrews football doesn’t draw much of a crowd – most of the fans appear to be friends or family members of the players themselves, and like many small college football programs, the schools in the same conference tend to be close together geographically (unlike the FBS’ Big 12, for example, which now has member schools stretching from Utah to Texas to West Virginia).
Because the schools are located close together, however, you will sometimes see as many visiting fans in attendance as home fans, depending on the opponent, since the drive is not that far. At Knights Football Field, this also means you will see tents in the opposing colors, being used by the opponent’s staff, on the opposite side of the field.
Access 3
Getting to Knights Football Field may be a little tricky – as mentioned the nearest big city is an hour away, so there aren’t many major roads to bring you here. The football stadium is located on Magnolia Drive near St. Andrews’ other sports facilities, but your GPS may have trouble finding it (mine did).
There is only one official entrance into the stadium, located near the food trucks (although the gate near the ambulance is also open, so you could technically sneak in that way).
Parking here is free – there is a paved parking lot down the street from the field next to the school’s athletic building, but most people park on the grass along the fence around the stadium, in the grass lot behind the food trucks, or under the trees one field over. Security doesn’t like people to park on the stadium side of the street, so you may be asked to move – if you park on the other side of the road from the stadium, however, you should be fine.
Return on Investment 3
Attending a game at Knights Football Field is very inexpensive considering the cheap tickets, low-cost concessions, and no cost for parking. However, there aren’t many frills here either.
Tickets to St. Andrews football games are only around $6, and you must purchase them online (there are no sales at the gate). There are a few fans, however, who just watch from the other side of the fence, either under a tent they brought or just standing along the fence – that way you can technically watch for free.
Depending on how late in the year it is, it could be pretty hot in North Carolina, so bringing a tent might be a good idea, or bringing an umbrella with you into the stadium to provide some shade. A few fans bring folding chairs into the stadium as well; if you do that you could sit under the trees along the fence line and get shade that way.
Extras 1
The stadium has some pleasant scenery, surrounded as it is by trees. The blue tents for the team’s staff also provide some pops of the Knights colors.