The City of Newark and event planner KBS Sports Strategies will host the inaugural Brick City HBCU Kickoff Classic, with Grambling State University and Hampton University playing on September 2, 2023, at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, NJ at 3:00 PM ET.

The Brick City HBCU Kickoff Classic is a celebration of the culture and excellence of Historically Black Colleges and Universities.  The Classic is designed to increase awareness of HBCU’s while also having a direct impact on the City of Newark through the awarding of scholarships, strengthened partnerships, and local economic development.

The Brick City HBCU Kickoff Classic renews a popular rivalry between two teams that are able to boast of Hall of Fame coaches- Eddie Robinson of GSU and Joe Taylor of HU.  Always highly competitive contests, Hampton University and Grambling State University have faced off on the gridiron seven times with Hampton having won six of those match-ups with an average attendance of 46,000.

The top five most highly attended HBCU Classics played in New Jersey all feature these two teams with three of the games against each other drawing better than 58,000 fans.

Red Bull Arena, home of the New York Red Bulls of Major League Soccer, will proudly host international sporting events this summer that include a Premier League matchup between Brighton & Hove Albion FC and Newcastle United, Gold Cup group stage matches and the Rugby Sevens event.

Since 2010, Red Bull Arena has hosted some of the top soccer clubs in the world including FC Barcelona, Chelsea FC, Manchester United, Manchester City FC, Tottenham Hotspur, Bayern Munich, SL Benfica, Club America, Paris Saint Germain, AS Roma and Juventus as well as international squads including the United States Men’s and Women’s National Teams, Argentina, Ecuador, Colombia, Czech Republic and Turkey.

Tickets will be available through Ticketmaster on April 24 .  For suite information email Red Bull Arena at [email protected] 

Additional information on tickets and Brick City HBCU Kickoff Classic events can be found at www.BrickCityClassic.com .