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Nippert Stadium Prepping for Football Season

Nipper Stadium Cincinnati

Switching Nippert Stadium from USL matches to college football games requires a solid plan, and the University of Cincinnati seems to have a formula in place. 

Upon arriving at Nippert Stadium, FC Cincinnati had make several changes to the facility, which primarily serves as home to the Cincinnati Bearcats. The capacity has to be adjusted for soccer games and, in order to accommodate USL action, FC Cincinnati’s ownership had to spend money to install amenities such as locker rooms and meeting spaces.

Perhaps the most notable modification, however, was the field. Facing different requirements for dimensions and configurations than what is used for a standard football field, officials opted to replace the turf at Nippert Stadium to one that was more conducive to soccer. Now that the Bearcats are about to begin their season, having the football standards reinforced on that surface is a must. From the looks of it, the university has a clear method to complete this process. More from The News Record:

Andre Seoldo, University of Cincinnati’s associate athletics director for facilities and operations, said UBU Sports ― a company that specializes in sports surfacing ― provides a crew of eight people to come and switch turf inserts from soccer-mode to football-mode. The inserts are located in the end-zones and centerfield.

In addition, Seoldo said they partner with Pioneer Paints to remove the lines from one sport and paint lines for the other.

In order to be sure the surface is playable for game day, the whole process can take some time.

“We’ve only done the initial one so far, which is when we had to put in regular turf. It takes some extra time the first time because you have to add the rubber and the sand,” Seoldo said. “So this is the first time we are doing it with the turf complete basically, we’re going through the process now, we predict it’s going to take somewhere between 24 and 36 hours to complete the job, and that’s with good weather and no snafoos.”

If this proves to be working formula, it will help ensure that Nippert Stadium is compatiable for both professional soccer and college football. It also shows that the university is preparing to make such changes, which is circuital considering that more  soccer-related upgrades to Nippert Stadium could take place.

Image courtesy of FC Cincinnati. 

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August Publications