FieldTurf Revolution 360 Elevates Columbia's Rocco B. Commisso Soccer Stadium

Under the Bubble at Baker, this key facility supports year-round training for multiple programs

Key Takeaways

• Columbia University's Rocco B. Commisso Soccer Stadium is part of the Baker Athletics Complex in Inwood-Manhattan and uses a FieldTurf Revolution 360 system.
• From December through March, the field is enclosed by the Bubble at Baker, a 92,000 sq ft air-supported dome that lets seven Columbia field sports train indoors.
• Revolution 360 posted a perfect score on Penn State's 30,000-cycle Lisport Wear Test and was the first fiber to score 83 or above on Labosport’s Fiber Performance Index.

A SEASON THAT DOESN'T STOP FOR WINTER

Columbia's Baker Athletics Complex, home to several facilities, including the Rocco B. Commisso Soccer Stadium, sits at the northern tip of Manhattan. It’s not a location known for its forgiving outdoor season.

Columbia’s soccer field first transitioned from grass to turf in June 2007, with a new FieldTurf system selected as the replacement. With men's and women's soccer, and five other field sports, relying on the venue's accessibility, a solution was needed to account for New York’s harsh winter weather. That challenge led to the construction of the ‘Bubble at Baker’, a seasonal air-supported dome that stretches over Rocco B. Commisso Soccer Stadium and opened in February 2017.

Columbia is one of only three Ivy League programs with a bubble-like structure, providing spring sports like baseball, softball, and lacrosse the chance to start real practice weeks before the ground outside has thawed.

The Bubble at Baker turned the outdoor pitch into a heated, 92,000-square-foot indoor practice facility from December through March. Building a new venue also provided an opportunity to update the artificial turf, and the FieldTurf Revolution 360 system was selected for the new surface.

TRUSTED FROM THE START

To adequately support athletes from across seven different programs — as Columbia does at the Rocco B. Commisso Soccer Stadium — an artificial turf surface needs to be designed with performance, safety, and durability in mind. The FieldTurf Revolution 360, an elite monofilament system introduced in 2015, was created to meet those criteria.

The system posted the first perfect score on Penn State University's aggressive 30,000-cycle Lisport Wear Test. It also became the first fiber to break 83 on Labosport's Fiber Performance Index.

In the first two years following its launch, Revolution 360 became the surface of choice for more than 300 programs across North America. In addition to being trusted at the home stadiums of the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks and Atlanta Falcons, it was also installed at athletic facilities for numerous NCAA Division I schools, including Princeton, Iowa, Toledo, Montana, and UC Berkeley.