The installation of a state-of-the-art artificial surface inside Nippert Stadium is underway and will be completed in time for the 2013 University of Cincinnati football season. The stadium has featured artificial turf since 1970 with the most recent surface installed in 2005. The new surface comes from UBU Sports, a Dalton, Ga. based company; the Maumee Bay Turf Center based out of Oregon, OH will handle the installation.
The stadium will feature UBU Sports’ Speed Series S5-M synthetic turf system, the same product used at Paul Brown Stadium, the Mercedes Benz Superdome in New Orleans and the Metrodome in Minneapolis, Minn. The same surface is scheduled to be installed into MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, the home field of the New York Giants and New York Jets and the home of Super Bowl XLVIII. The synthetic surface features UBU Sports’ exclusive Harmony Fiber, a trusted and durable component currently used in synthetic turf systems for football leagues ranging from pee-wee to professional ranks.
The field orientation will be shifted slightly north and west to even out the sideline areas and add a run-off area around the south endzone.
Workers have removed the old turf over the past week with the installation of the new field slated to be completed by the beginning of August. Following the repair of the field base, grading of the surface and installation of the goal posts and kick netting, the new turf will be installed
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Due to the deterioration and condition of the old turf, UC will be unable to cut or sell and pieces off to fans and collectors.
Entering its 112th season, Carson Field at Nippert Stadium is the venerable home of the University of Cincinnati football team and provides the Bearcats with one of the best home-field environments in college football.
Construction began on Nippert Stadium in 1915 and was completed in 1924. UC has used the Nippert site as a playing field since 1901, making it the second-oldest playing site in the nation for college football behind Penn’s Franklin Field (1895).
Among NCAA FBS schools, Nippert is the third-oldest stadium still in use, behind Bobby Dodd Stadium (Georgia Tech – 1913), Davis Wade Stadium (Mississippi State – 1914) and ahead of Wisconsin’s Camp Randall Stadium, which was built in 1917.
USA Today recently named Nippert as the best home-field venue in the former BIG EAST Conference and ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt cited Nippert as a ‘one of the gems of college football.’