Super Bowl Practice Facility - Before the Turf

I stopped by the University of Indianapolis last week. After visiting both the baseball and softball fields, I headed to the new bubble on campus. This bubble will serve as host to the NFC representative at this years Super Bowl.

The photo below is from the interior of the facility. The paved area (100,000 sq ft) will have an infill turf system for the big game. A regulation football field plus sidelines can fit inside this very large space. Notice the skylight. There are lights inside this building, but under normal light conditions, no lights are needed.

The same principals that were used to inflate the RCA Dome are used to inflate the UIndy bubble. Of course, the RCA Dome had 55,000+ seats supporting the bubble.

Next, a couple of photos of the new locker room. Notice the room is broken into five different rooms. The teams dress in these rooms, and also use them as meeting rooms. The doors of the rooms are overhead doors that double for dry erase boards.

Finally a photo from the baseball field looking at the bubble. This bubble is one of the few in the country that is grey in color. Grey was used for two reasons. One, it is a school color. Two, it is a background for both baseball and softball, so white was not an option.

Look for more posts of this facility as the Super Bowl arrives in Indy.

To learn more about UIndy athletics, click HERE.

To see the first two posts of this project, click HERE and HERE.

Go to j-dturf.com to learn more about J&D Turf.

Play on!
--Jamie