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118-518: Starfire Sports is a multi-purpose stadium and sporting facility in Tukwila, Washington , United States. It is located on the banks of the Green River , just south of Seattle . The stadium is operated by the nonprofit corporation Starfire Sports and is home to several soccer and rugby teams. At the time of its opening, CEO Chris Slatt claimed it was "the largest synthetic-turf soccer complex in

236-723: A college baseball stadium, now sitting on its former site. Most other inflatable domes, such as the Hoosier Dome and Pontiac Silverdome , were football-only stadiums, although both stadiums hosted basketball; the later-RCA Dome hosted the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament many times and hosted the Final Four multiple times while the Silverdome was the home arena for the Detroit Pistons for most of

354-613: A few years). Wrigley Field , while originally built for baseball, also hosted the Chicago Bears , Comiskey Park hosted the Chicago Cardinals , and Tiger Stadium hosted the Detroit Lions . Later venues such as Cleveland Stadium , Milwaukee County Stadium and Baltimore Memorial Stadium were all built to accommodate both baseball and football. In 1920s New England, outdoor wood-track velodromes such as

472-753: A future MLB team by adding a third deck to the Mezzanine roof. It ultimately served as a temporary home to the Toronto Blue Jays of MLB in 2020 and 2021, when they were displaced by the COVID-19 pandemic after the government of Canada denied them permission to play at Rogers Centre . During the 1990s and 2000s, most of the multipurpose stadiums used for MLB in the United States were replaced by "retro-style" ballparks. These parks were built in two varieties: "retro-classic" parks, which combine

590-417: A movable natural grass surface for soccer, and the other a synthetic turf surface for gridiron. To accommodate the different sight lines preferred for each sport, the soccer surface is positioned several feet above the gridiron, so that the seats are closer to the field in its soccer configuration and elevated above the sidelines and coaches in its gridiron configuration. The idea of a sharp difference between

708-585: A multi-purpose stadium is that a singular infrastructure and piece of real estate can support both teams in terms of transportation and playing area, while money (often public funds) that would have been spent to support infrastructure for two stadiums can be spent elsewhere. Also playing into the advent of the multipurpose stadium was Americans' growing use of automobiles, which required professional sports stadiums surrounded by parking: most cities lacked affordable space for such stadiums near their city centers, so multi-purpose stadiums were typically built farther from

826-470: A multipurpose stadium and a single-sport stadium is less important outside of North America, since in most countries stadiums that are constructed with football in mind are easily able to accommodate rugby , track and field, and other popular sports, which tend to have a similarly sized playing field. For example, any large stadium in most of Latin America, part of Asia, most of Africa, or continental Europe

944-530: A natural grass surface at BMO Field in Toronto. The club removed the FieldTurf playing surface and switched to a traditional grass surface starting in 2010. Following David Beckham 's move to Major League Soccer in 2007, he voiced his opinion that the league should convert to grass for all pitches. In an apology, he stated that the surface is fine at lower levels, but that his feelings had not changed about

1062-450: A potential MLB expansion franchise, opened. Pilot Field replaced the long-obsolete War Memorial Stadium , which had been designed mainly for football, and hosted the NFL's Buffalo Bills ; but it had been (awkwardly) fit for baseball after the city's baseball park, Offermann Stadium , was condemned and torn down in 1960 to build a high school in its place . Pilot Field was also designed to host

1180-550: A press box in the upper tier on the third-base line oriented specifically for football, along with space beyond right field for a movable grandstand to accommodate an additional 13,000 fans for a future pro football franchise. This additional grandstand was indeed added to Anaheim Stadium in 1980 to accommodate the Los Angeles Rams' move from the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum . Anaheim Stadium

1298-453: A public hearing at the beginning of 2008 for the offices and training facilities of Seattle Sounders FC . The team's practice fields replaced four existing softball fields on the campus. Starfire features fields for indoor and outdoor soccer , and occasionally rugby union games, as well as a 4,500-seat soccer stadium. In 2004, the stadium field became only the eighth American artificial-surface pitch to earn "recommended" status by FIFA and

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1416-416: A rectangular playing field, but cricket and Australian-rules fields are rounded, while baseball is played on a diamond. This makes them much harder to accommodate within a rectangular-shaped stadium. Likewise, accommodating athletics, such as for a Summer Olympics, means constructing a curved 400-m track around the infield. This often means the sports simply find it easier to be played in separate stadiums. In

1534-473: A temporary wall. The Oakland Coliseum uses a configuration such that its football sideline runs along a line drawn from first base to third base (the former Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium also used this configuration). This was done presumably to make the same coveted seats behind home plate at a baseball game also coveted 50-yard line seats at a football game, and also so the stadium would need only one press box . Different stadiums have different angles between

1652-801: A venue for Major League Baseball or the Summer Olympics and felt no need to replace their smaller, open-air stadiums used mostly for Canadian football. For example, Calgary 's open-air McMahon Stadium dates from 1960 and has been used only for Canadian football,and later was chosen to host the 1988 Winter Olympics opening and closing ceremonies, and an outdoor ice hockey event (the 2011 Heritage Classic ). Similar situations hold in Ottawa, Winnipeg, Hamilton, and Regina. No large stadiums of any kind are in cities such as Quebec City, London, or Saskatoon, or in Atlantic Canada ; in those places (with

1770-556: A way that it could be converted to a new baseball stadium, and ACOG paid for the conversion. Despite being considered controversial at the time, the International Olympic Committee considered the action innovative, due to the fact that there were no local needs for another stadium with a capacity for more than 70.000, given the existence of the Georgia Dome which was completed in 1992. Furthermore,

1888-439: A way to gain entry into the rapidly growing residential and commercial synthetic grass markets in the United States. The surface is composed of monofilament polyethylene -blend fibers tufted into a polypropylene backing. The infill is composed of a bottom layer of silica sand, a middle layer which is a mixture of sand and cryogenic rubber, and a top layer of only rubber. The fibers are meant to replicate blades of grass, while

2006-535: A whole was 22% higher on FieldTurf than on natural grass. While MCL sprains did not occur at a rate significantly higher than on grass, rates of ACL sprains were 67% higher on FieldTurf." Studies of the safety of FieldTurf are conflicting. A five-year study funded by FieldTurf and published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine found that injury rates for high-school sports were similar on natural grass and synthetic turf. However, notable differences in

2124-508: Is a brand of artificial turf playing surface. It is manufactured and installed by FieldTurf Tarkett, a division of French company Tarkett . FieldTurf is headquartered in Montreal, Quebec , Canada, and its primary manufacturing facility is located in Calhoun, Georgia , United States. With a design intended to more accurately replicate real grass, the new product rapidly gained popularity in

2242-648: Is a combination of woven and nonwoven polypropylene. These materials are permeable and allow water to drain through the backing itself. Some evidence shows higher player injury on artificial turf. In a study performed by the National Football League Injury and Safety Panel, published in the October 2012 issue of the American Journal of Sports Medicine , Elliott B. Hershman et al. reviewed injury data from NFL games played between 2000 and 2009. They wrote, "...the injury rate of knee sprains as

2360-541: Is capable of hosting baseball but has been primarily a football venue. Rogers Centre was built to accommodate baseball (MLB's Toronto Blue Jays play there), but was a football venue until the CFL's Toronto Argonauts moved to BMO Field after the 2015 CFL season . Montreal's Olympic Stadium was built primarily for a multisport event (the 1976 Summer Olympics ), during which it hosted the athletics , equestrian , football . Latterly, it hosted professional team sports: it became

2478-605: Is harder than the grass and is also a significant injury risk. Baseball purists disliked artificial turf, though the Cincinnati Reds took advantage of this on Riverfront Stadium 's artificial turf: on offense by recruiting players who combined power and speed and encouraging line drive hitting that could produce doubles, triples, and high-bouncing infield hits; while for defense the fast surface and virtually dirtless infield rewarded range and quickness by both outfielders and infielders, like shortstop Dave Concepción , who used

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2596-593: Is likely to be used mostly for association football. The majority of the largest stadiums in the world were built for either association football or American football. The regions where other outdoor sports can draw numbers comparable to association football or American football are limited. They include baseball in Japan and the Spanish Caribbean ; cricket in United Kingdom,South Africa, Australia,

2714-717: Is the only major outdoor team sport in many countries; in many other countries, association football and rugby can easily coexist with limited venue conversion required beyond goalpost changes and line markings. In Australia, many sports grounds are suited to both Australian rules football and cricket , as Australian Rules fields and laws are laid out on cricket ovals. In some cases, such as at Stadium Australia in Sydney, Docklands Stadium in Melbourne, and National Stadium, in Singapore , stadiums are designed to be converted between

2832-548: The 1983 Summer Universiade . In Canada, several large multisport stadiums were built during this style's heyday. However, unlike in the United States, an NFL team has never been based primarily in Canada (though the Buffalo Bills played some home games in Toronto between 2008 and 2013) and only two MLB teams have been based there. So, teams from these leagues have not been the major impetus behind stadium construction (with

2950-565: The 2006 FIFA World Cup . A different take on the multipurpose concept can be seen in the Saitama Super Arena in Japan and Paris La Défense Arena in the inner suburbs of Paris. Both venues are similar to JMA Wireless Dome in that they are fully enclosed stadiums (though with fixed roofs instead of the Dome's original air-supported roof) that can accommodate field and indoor court sports. However, they differ from JMA Wireless Dome in

3068-801: The Anglophone Caribbean , and the Indian subcontinent ; rugby (union or league) in Wales, England, Ireland, South Africa, New Zealand, Fiji, the country of Georgia, and parts of Australia and France; Australian rules football in Australia; bandy in Russia and Scandinavia; and Gaelic games in Ireland. However, even in these areas, the amount of compromise needed to accommodate multiple sports varies considerably. Most outdoor team sports require

3186-674: The Arup Group cited history to show that a rarely-used athletics track does not work for association football, as these multi-purpose stadiums substantially lengthen the viewing distance for spectators, as compared to football-specific stadiums. Notable unsuccessful past examples, of football matches played within athletics stadiums, include the former Stadio delle Alpi and the Munich Olympic Stadium , with both Juventus and Bayern Munich moving to new stadiums less than 40 years after inheriting them. The delle Alpi's design

3304-560: The Atlanta Braves had already been exploring opportunities for a new venue to replace the outdated Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium . The southwest corner of the Olympic Stadium was built to accommodate the future baseball infield and seating. This is observable in aerial views and plans of the stadium in its Olympic configuration, where the temporary seats are not placed next to the oval running track. The southwest part of

3422-522: The Coppa Italia home match against Sampdoria in the 2001–02 season, while in the 2005–06 season, the average attendance was 35,880. Manchester City Council wished to avoid creating a white elephant , so to give the stadium long-term financial viability, extensive work was carried out to convert the City of Manchester Stadium from a track and field arena to a football stadium. The old Estádio da Luz

3540-664: The DC United soccer club moved out, and its demolition began in 2022. Thus, only the Oakland Coliseum remains in use, while the Athletics are now the sole tenants of the Oakland Coliseum after the Raiders relocated to Las Vegas in 2020 . However, in 2023, the A's announced their own intentions of moving to Las Vegas . The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome was unusual as one of the few air-supported dome stadiums that

3658-593: The East Hartford Velodrome and Providence's Cycledrome could, with some compromises, fit an American football field in their infields: early NFL franchises in each city (the Hartford Blues and Providence Steam Roller , respectively) used the velodromes as their home stadiums. In the 1960s, multipurpose stadiums began replacing their baseball-only and football-only predecessors, now known as "classics" or "jewel box" parks. The advantage of

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3776-553: The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), and the rules of each game are mapped onto the same dimensions—although some pitches in areas where hurling is the dominant code have longer pitches slightly more suited to faster, longer passes in the hurling game. When the Aviva was being rebuilt, Croke Park stepped in as home for the national teams in both soccer and rugby union, a decision of significant political weight in

3894-668: The Kingdome in 1976. Eight of these eleven stadiums have been since demolished, with Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium demolished in 1997, the Kingdome in 2000, Three Rivers Stadium in 2001, Riverfront Stadium in 2002, Veterans Stadium in 2004, Busch Memorial Stadium in 2005, Shea Stadium in 2009, and San Diego Stadium in 2021. Furthermore, the Astrodome has been vacant since 2008 due to its failure to meet current fire and building code requirements. RFK Stadium has been vacant since 2017 when

4012-475: The Seattle Seawolves , began play at Starfire Sports in spring 2018. The site was formerly Fort Dent Park , operated by King County . In addition to the existing grass soccer fields, the park included a cricket pitch and softball fields in the areas now occupied by artificial-surface soccer fields. Severe budget cuts in 2002 led the county to schedule the closing of this park, among others, at

4130-731: The USL incarnation of the Seattle Sounders , Seattle Reign FC of the NWSL , Seattle Sounders Women of the W-League , As of 2023, it hosts Seattle Sounders FC of Major League Soccer for US Open Cup matches, Tacoma Defiance of MLS Next Pro , and Seattle Seawolves of Major League Rugby . It was also the home of Hibernian and Caledonian F.C. and FK Pacific of the Pacific Coast Soccer League . Additionally,

4248-462: The soccer-specific stadium movement. As of 2020 , 18 of Major League Soccer 's 26 clubs play in their own, soccer-specific stadiums, and two of the exceptions ( FC Cincinnati and Nashville SC ) are currently building their own soccer-specific stadiums. In addition, three of the four teams that will join MLS in 2021 and 2022 plan to open soccer-specific stadiums in time for their MLS debuts. Scheduling

4366-637: The 1960s and 1970s as shared home stadiums for Major League Baseball and National Football League or Canadian Football League teams. Some stadiums were renovated to allow multipurpose configurations during the 1980s. This type of stadium is associated with an era of suburbanization , in which many sports teams followed their fans out of large cities into areas with cheaper, more plentiful land. They were usually built near highways and had large parking lots , but were rarely connected to public transit . As multipurpose stadiums were rarely ideal for both sports usually housed in them, they had fallen out of favor by

4484-508: The 1980s. The Carrier Dome was another such air-supported, multipurpose stadium; it was built to accommodate outdoor sports such as football and indoor sports such as basketball. The Carrier Dome, since renamed JMA Wireless Dome, remains in use, although its air-supported roof was replaced by a fixed roof in 2020. Air-supported domes fell out of favor in the 21st century after notable weather-related collapses in Minnesota and Pontiac exposed

4602-444: The 1990s, in light of the growing trend of "walkable urbanism", as teams sought to return to the city core where they could develop or take advantage of existing hospitality in order to grow their fanbase. Many teams also relocated to where they could control mixed-use development around their new stadium. Contrary to the above trend of teams moving away from suburbs, the Atlanta Braves left Turner Field for SunTrust Park . Often

4720-889: The 1990s, with the SkyDome (in Canada) that opened in 1989 being the last such stadium completed to accommodate baseball and football. With the completion of the Truman Sports Complex in Kansas City in 1973, a model for purpose-built stadiums was laid down. Since the Baltimore Orioles left the multi-purpose Memorial Stadium for the baseball-only Oriole Park at Camden Yards in 1992, most major league sports stadiums have been built specifically for one sport. However, some newer NFL stadiums (e.g. Seattle, Atlanta, Charlotte) have been built with consideration for

4838-612: The Aviva and for the ultimately unsuccessful 2023 Rugby World Cup bid. Croke Park has also occasionally hosted visiting American football college matches, especially those featuring the Army and Navy , or Notre Dame , with which Ireland has a long-standing connection. Several stadiums hosted multiple sports teams before the advent of multi-purpose stadiums. In New York City, the Polo Grounds hosted football teams early on, as its rectangular nature lent itself well to football and

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4956-547: The CFL. It has also hosted many association football events, as well as the 2003 Heritage Classic , the first major outdoor ice hockey event in Canada. Tim Hortons Field , which opened in 2014, was built both as a venue for the 2015 Pan American Games and as the new home of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats football team; its predecessor, Ivor Wynne Stadium , was originally built for the first Commonwealth Games . Other Canadian cities never expressed interest in building

5074-704: The Chicago Cubs, the same day the San Francisco 49ers were scheduled to host their division rival New Orleans Saints . The October 8 game was moved to New Orleans and the November 6 game was moved to San Francisco. In Australia, most major stadiums that can hold over 50,000, such as the Melbourne Cricket Ground and Adelaide Oval , are circular or oval-shaped venues which – while suitable for cricket and Australian rules football – pose

5192-642: The English Premiership's Middlesbrough F.C. As of 2012 , FieldTurf has installed over 7000 athletic fields. In 2005, French flooring manufacturer and minority shareholder Tarkett increased its share in FieldTurf, which led to the integration of the two companies. FieldTurf is a part of the Tarkett Sports division of the holding company Tarkett SA. In May 2010, FieldTurf acquired the American company EasyTurf of San Diego, California, as

5310-943: The Gaelic games community, most notably manifested in GAA Rule 42 , means that football and rugby clubs have generally had to play on separate grounds. True multisport facilities, where teams from a variety of sports use the same stadium as their home ground, exist outside North America in a few cases, most of those as smaller stadiums. A handful are notable for having 60,000 seats or more. The Melbourne Cricket Ground hosts athletics,cricket, Australian rules football, and association football. Accor Stadium hosts cricket and Australian rules football, as well as both rugby codes and association football. Wembley Stadium in London, Stade de France near Paris, and Millennium Stadium in Cardiff are not

5428-543: The NFL's Injury and Safety Panel presented a study finding that anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries happened 88% more often in games played on FieldTurf than in games played on grass. In 2012, the Injury and Safety Panel published an independently funded analysis of actual game data over the 2000–2009 seasons. Their statistically significant findings showed a 67% higher rate of ACL sprains and 31% higher rate of eversion ankle sprains. The first installation of FieldTurf in

5546-665: The Oakland Athletics were the last team in the U.S. still sharing a stadium with an NFL team (the Oakland Raiders ), the Oakland Coliseum (now RingCentral Coliseum). This arrangement ended once the Raiders settled into the new Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada in 2020, leaving no stadiums shared between NFL and MLB franchises. The Athletics officially announced they would begin their relocation process to Las Vegas by 2024. FieldTurf FieldTurf

5664-596: The Starfire complex in favor of a new facility at Longacres in nearby Renton, Washington , which opened in 2024. Starting in February 2023, Seattle-based Seattle Reign FC of the National Women's Soccer League will use the Starfire complex for training facilities as the complex's primary tenant, having previously played home games there for their 2013 season . The Seattle franchise of Major League Rugby ,

5782-546: The U.S." From 2008 to 2024, Seattle Sounders FC of MLS has had offices and training facilities at the complex, whose main stadium hosted the Sounders' second-division incarnation in 2008 and has since staged the team's Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup matches. The Sounders' affiliate team, the Tacoma Defiance , played at Starfire from 2015 to 2017 and has returned for select games starting in 2022. The Sounders vacated

5900-497: The United States took place at Dick Bivins Stadium in Amarillo, Texas (which was the home field for the Amarillo Independent School District 's football teams) in 1998. The first major college football installation was at University of Nebraska's Memorial Stadium in 1999. The following year, it was installed at the two Pac-10 stadiums: Martin Stadium in Pullman , Washington and Husky Stadium in Seattle . The first installation in an NFL (and by extension, professional) stadium

6018-424: The United States. Though hailed as revolutionary at the time, the Truman Sports Complex model of stadium design was widely ignored for the next 20 years, though the influence of both Arrowhead and Kauffman Stadiums were easily seen in venues such as Giants Stadium. The true end of the multipurpose era began in 1987, when Buffalo 's Pilot Field , a stadium built for the Buffalo Bisons minor league baseball team and

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6136-426: The action if needed. Lang Park in Brisbane is currently (as of 2020) the only purpose-built rectangle stadium in Australia (with fixed seating) with a capacity exceeding 50,000. The first real departure from the multipurpose stadium design occurred in 1972, when the Jackson County Sports Authority in Kansas City, Missouri , opened the Truman Sports Complex , which houses Kauffman Stadium (named Royals Stadium at

6254-449: The baseball dimensions roughly symmetrical. Qualcomm Stadium's square-circle " octorad " layout was considered an improvement over the other cookie cutter stadiums of the time, and it was the last of the old multi-purpose stadiums to host a Super Bowl ( Super Bowl XXXVII ). More-modern multi-purpose stadiums have used more elaborate methods to accommodate multiple sports; Tottenham Hotspur Stadium , for example, uses two sets of turfs, one

6372-497: The best solution at the time. The first of these "cookie-cutter" or "concrete donut" stadiums was Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in 1961 (then known as District of Columbia Stadium); it was followed during the 1960s and 1970s by Shea Stadium in 1964, Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium and the Astrodome in 1965, Busch Memorial Stadium and Oakland Coliseum in 1966, San Diego Stadium in 1967, Riverfront Stadium and Three Rivers Stadium in 1970, Veterans Stadium in 1971, and

6490-415: The case of Ireland, grounds built for Gaelic games are physically capable of hosting association football and the rugby codes without changing the seating configuration. Because the Gaelic games' pitch is rectangular and also longer and wider than that for football or either rugby code, the only changes required are the physical goals and field markings. However, opposition to those sports within large parts of

6608-655: The center of the field rather than towards the logical center of the game action (home plate for baseball and the 50-yard line for football). In the baseball configuration, most had symmetrical field dimensions. This detracted from the unique, individual identity enjoyed by the sport-specific "jewel box" stadiums with odd or asymmetrical field dimensions, and further supported the "cookie cutter stadium" nickname. The large capacities of multipurpose stadiums were usually more than adequate for football. However, baseball crowds tend to be much smaller than football crowds, resulting in baseball games at these stadiums being swallowed up in

6726-432: The city center with freeway access. Subsets of the multipurpose stadiums were the so-called "cookie-cutter stadiums" or "concrete donuts" which were all very similar in design. They featured a completely circular or nearly circular design and accommodated both baseball and football by rotating sections of the box seat areas to fit the respective playing fields. These fields often used artificial turf , as it could withstand

6844-501: The complex hosts the annual All Nations Cup , played by local teams representing their nationalities. Starfire hosted the 2023 USL League Two Final between Ballard FC and Lionsbridge FC , which was played on August 5, 2023, in front of 3,416 spectators. Ballard FC won 2–1. 47°28′11″N 122°14′54″W  /  47.46972°N 122.24833°W  / 47.46972; -122.24833 Multi-purpose stadium In North America, multipurpose stadiums were primarily built during

6962-599: The county’s offer had Starfire not stepped in. Starfire plans to cover operating and maintenance costs through user fees and advertising banners and hopes to retire the $ 10 million construction costs over the course of several years. New construction included four lighted outdoor soccer fields with FieldTurf , including the stadium with its 2000-seat grandstand, along with the indoor facility. Beginning in summer 2004, English Premier League powerhouse Manchester United offered training at Starfire as part of their Soccer Schools program. This came to an end in December 2007. In

7080-403: The drawbacks of air-supported domes in snowy locales. During the height of the multipurpose stadium construction era of the 1960s and 1970s, three baseball-only stadiums were constructed: Candlestick Park (1960), Dodger Stadium (1962), and Royals Stadium (1973; now Kauffman Stadium). Anaheim Stadium (now known as Angel Stadium ), although designed primarily for baseball, opened in 1966 with

7198-526: The earlier turfs, it has been seen as easier to build new stadiums for each sport rather than attempt to share an inflexible turf installation among multiple sports. Some 21st-century multi-purpose stadiums, such as Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and State Farm Stadium , have developed a more elaborate method of placing an entire playing surface, such as a grass surface for association football and an artificial turf one for gridiron football, on one or more slabs (one at State Farm, three at Tottenham Hotspur) and towing

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7316-501: The early 2000s, also has had a role in the decline of the multipurpose stadium. While first-generation, short-pile turfs such as AstroTurf lent themselves well to multiple sports, this was not the case with FieldTurf and its competitors. Modern artificial turf requires a more permanent installation, including a sand and rubber base or infill that is not easily removed, and thus does not lend itself well to multipurpose stadiums. Because of such turfs' superiority in other features, compared to

7434-418: The end of the year; however, parks located within municipal boundaries were offered to those cities. That offer sparked the formation of Starfire Sports by Slatt, Steve Beck, and Mark Bickham, who negotiated a 40-year lease with Tukwila to allow them to build and operate the complex. This would relieve the city of an estimated $ 500,000 in annual maintenance costs which would likely have caused it to refuse

7552-442: The environment. This was especially true if a baseball team were not doing particularly well either on the field or in the box office. This was another reason some baseball teams closed sections of the upper level during the regular season. Many multipurpose stadiums also had artificial turf playing surfaces, to ease the transition from baseball field to football field and vice versa. Most early installations of artificial turf such as

7670-424: The exception of Saskatoon), smaller stadiums (less than 13,000 seats) exist, which can be augmented with temporary seating to bring their capacities close to that of the smaller CFL stadiums. Most multipurpose stadiums that existed in North America overlaid one sideline of the football field along one of the baseball foul lines , with one corner of the football field being located where home plate would be. Because

7788-451: The fans closer to the field. This has created some difficulties with creating large athletics venues for major championships, as fans are less willing to accept the compromises required in the design of such stadiums, an issue that has bedevilled, e.g. the London Stadium since the 2012 Summer Olympics and was avoided in the commonwealth Games stadiums of 2000 and 2014 by returning the stadiums to football-only use, and in 2022 by having

7906-494: The fields have some public access. The team opened part of its training sessions to the public and allowed fans to greet players on walks between the training facility and practice fields. During the Copa América Centenario in 2016, temporary windscreens and privacy barriers were installed for visiting national teams, including Argentina . The complex's main stadium, which seats 4,500 spectators, has been used by several professional soccer teams and for other sports. Among them were

8024-403: The first of two national stadiums, Aviva Stadium , is shared by football and rugby union, although only rugby union has a club team, Leinster Rugby , that regularly uses the facility. The other larger national stadium, Croke Park , hosts three different sports regularly: gaelic football , hurling , and its women's equivalent, camogie . All three are gaelic games run by the same organisation,

8142-469: The first stadium to host a FIFA World Cup qualifying match on FieldTurf. The Dundalk F.C. Stadium, Oriel Park , received FieldTurf's first FIFA 2-star rating. FieldTurf has 29 FIFA-recommended 1-Star installations and 31 FIFA Recommended 2-Star installations as of 2009 . In 2007, the FIFA U-20 World Cup Canada had almost 50% of its games played on FieldTurf. The use of FieldTurf in Major League Soccer (MLS) has received criticism. The installation of

8260-403: The fundamentally different sizes and shapes of the playing fields made them inadequate for either sport. When used for baseball, the lower-level boxes were usually set back much farther from the field than comparable seats in baseball-only parks because they swiveled into position for American football and association football. In the case of stadiums that hosted both baseball and Canadian football,

8378-402: The home of the Montreal Alouettes football team and the Montreal Expos baseball team, and began serving as an alternate home to the Montreal Impact when that team entered Major League Soccer in 2012. Similarly, the open-air Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton was constructed for the 1978 Commonwealth Games and the 1983 Summer Universiade but has also become home to the Edmonton Elks of

8496-406: The infill acts as a cushion. This cushion is intended to improve safety when compared to earlier artificial surfaces and allows players to plant and pivot as if they were playing on a grass field. Each square foot of turf contains about 3 kg (7 lb) of sand and 1.5 kg (3 lb) of cryogenic rubber. FieldTurf does not use shock-absorbency pads below its infill. The backing of the turf

8614-536: The interior and exterior design of the "classic" ballparks with the amenities of newer facilities; and "retro-modern" parks, which have modern amenities and "retro" interiors, but have modern exterior designs. The first "retro-classic" park in MLB was Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore, which opened in 1992 and was based mostly on Pilot Field's design. The "retro-modern" park made its first appearance in 1994 with

8732-424: The late 1990s. Jean Prévost bought the patent of the FieldTurf product in 1988, and originally named his Montreal-based company SynTenni Co., a name which would eventually be dropped in favor of FieldTurf Inc. In 1995, John Gilman, a former Canadian Football League player and coach, joined FieldTurf as CEO. In 1997, FieldTurf made its first major installation for a professional team, at the training facility for

8850-411: The late 2000s, the complex was proposed as the site of a larger 28,000-seat venue that would host a Major League Soccer expansion team. Starfire was instead chosen as the training grounds for the expansion team awarded to Seattle Sounders FC . The city of Tukwila still maintains a wooded part of the 54-acre (220,000 m) site as a public park. An expansion was unanimously approved by city leaders in

8968-466: The left- and right-field seats. In stadiums that were primarily football stadiums converted to baseball stadiums, the stands were at nearly right angles. This allowed the football field to be squared within the bleachers, but left the baseball configuration with many undesirable views farther away from home plate or facing away from the diamond, such as at the Kingdome, the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, and

9086-484: The length of a regulation American football field is 360 feet, longer than the roughly 330-foot average for foul lines in Major League Baseball, this requires an unusually long distance from the home plate to the fence along the foul line on which the football field is constructed, part of the football field to be constructed in foul territory (and the size of said territory to be increased accordingly), or

9204-475: The lower boxes were set even farther back than their American counterparts, because Canadian football fields are 30 yards longer and considerably wider than their American counterparts. Likewise, attempts to build stadiums without support columns to obstruct spectators' views, as was the case with sport-specific "jewel box" stadiums, resulted in upper decks being placed very high above the field—as far as 600 feet away in some cases. Several teams closed off sections of

9322-460: The nation's history. Gaelic grounds can easily accommodate both as the typical Gaelic pitch, while similarly rectangular, is significantly longer and wider than the fields used for soccer and rugby union, which are almost identical in dimensions. Historically, however, the GAA has been reluctant to allow 'foreign' sports to use its facilities, although these objections were set aside both for the rebuild of

9440-408: The national athletics body as the sole primary tenant of a renovated stadium. Winter sports facilities, especially speed skating rinks , can be multi-purpose stadiums. Very often, a rink or two of approximately 61 by 30 meters—the regulation size of an IIHF ice hockey rink —are placed inside the oval. Sometimes the ice surface is even larger, allowing for both bandy and curling . In Ireland,

9558-618: The notable exception of Toronto). Instead, stadiums were built primarily for Canadian Football League (CFL) teams and to host multiple-sport events, such as the Winter Olympics , Commonwealth Games , and Pan American Games . Three of Canada's largest stadiums from this era and type feature domed or retractable roofs : namely BC Place in Vancouver, SkyDome/Rogers Centre in Toronto, and Olympic Stadium in Montreal. BC Place

9676-499: The opening of Jacobs Field, now known as Progressive Field , in Cleveland . Many football teams that shared a stadium with a baseball team had their stadiums converted into football-only facilities shortly after the baseball tenant left, while other football teams followed their baseball counterparts and had new football-only stadiums constructed. The widespread adoption of FieldTurf , and similar modern artificial turfs beginning in

9794-416: The original AstroTurf was nothing more than carpet on top of concrete with little padding, material that was easy to apply and remove. Such types of removable artificial turf caused frequent injuries to players and eventually made free agents wary of signing with teams whose home fields had artificial turf. During the first month of the football season, the playing field included the baseball infield soil that

9912-557: The oval configuration for cricket and Australian rules football and a rectangular configuration for rugby and association football, and in the case of Singapore's National Stadium, an athletics configuration as well. Association football stadiums have historically served as track and field arenas, too, and some (like the Olympiastadion in Berlin) still do, whereas a newer generation frequently has no running track, in order to allow

10030-830: The permanent homes to any club teams, but are used primarily for international competitions and major tournament finals, mostly for association football and rugby (though Wembley has regularly hosted American football). In South Africa, Soccer City and Ellis Park Stadium have hosted rugby union and football, while Moses Mabhida Stadium has hosted football and cricket. Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Kochi , in India hosts cricket and football. Eden Park in New Zealand hosts rugby union and cricket. Sky Stadium in Wellington, New Zealand , has hosted both rugby codes, cricket, association football, and Australian rules football. Architects from

10148-422: The portable sections would be placed in the western quadrant of the stadium and serve as the third-base half of the infield. In the football configuration, these would be placed in the northern quadrant of the stadium (covering what is used as left field in the baseball configuration) to allow for the football field to be laid out east–west. This had the advantage of improving sight lines for both sports while keeping

10266-452: The possible use of the stadium for Major League Soccer or international soccer, which has similar field dimensions to American football. Fields that are suitable for soccer are almost always equally suitable for either rugby code ( rugby union or rugby league ), and the 2031 Rugby World Cup is expected to employ the same stadiums as the NFL and MLS. Outside North America, the term is rarely used, since association football (i.e., soccer)

10384-401: The reconfiguration process more easily, or be removed for non-sporting events. Furthermore, many of these stadiums were either enclosed domes (where natural grass could not grow without sunlight) or located in cold-weather cities (where undersoil heating was expensive and unreliable) and before the development of hybrid grass and improved natural grass cultivation techniques, artificial turf was

10502-607: The same sight-line problems for football, rugby league, and rugby union as an athletics venue would. Playing sports with rectangle-shaped pitches on larger ovals often means fans can be as much as 30 metres (98 ft) or more from the sidelines. Both Stadium Australia in Sydney and the Docklands Stadium in Melbourne have retractable seating, to be able to change from an oval to rectangle shape and bring fans closer to

10620-530: The slab(s) in and out of place for each sport. Because of the expense of using this method, it is generally only used for the highest-level professional sports. The Miami Marlins moved to Marlins Park , a new retractable-roof stadium in Miami, in 2012. Sun Life Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) was then renovated to eliminate its baseball functionality, making it a football-only stadium. With the Marlins' relocation,

10738-467: The specific way they accommodate court sports. Both the Super Arena (used mainly for basketball, volleyball, mixed martial arts , and professional wrestling events) and Paris La Défense Arena (home of rugby union's Racing 92 ) feature movable seating blocks that allow each facility to serve as an appropriately sized venue for either field or court sports. In 2014, Singapore's new National Stadium

10856-493: The stadium also had four tiers of seats, luxury boxes , a facade facing the street, and a roof, whereas the northern half of the stadium used a simpler two-tiered seating configuration. During reconstruction, the athletics track was removed, and the north half of the stadium was demolished, reducing the capacity to 49,000 when it reopened as Turner Field . Because of the former track area, the field of play , particularly foul territory , although not large by historical standards,

10974-461: The stadium feel too enclosed, and cut off panoramic views of the stadium's aesthetic surroundings (waterfront, skyline, mountains). The suburban locales of many multipurpose stadiums (as well as other sport-specific stadiums also built there) were also a focal point of criticism. Choosing a suburb over a city core was meant to take advantage of lower land values and new freeways. Suburbs were often poorly serviced by public transit, and when coupled with

11092-483: The stands. This made the football viewing farther away, and in some cases partially obscured as in Candlestick Park. In the case of Qualcomm Stadium, it was constructed with half of the field-level seating being permanent (built of concrete, in the southern quadrant of the stadium), and the other half portable (modular construction using aluminum or steel framing). When the stadium was configured for baseball,

11210-529: The suburban stadium was not located in the municipality that the team purportedly represented, and in some cases the stadium was over a state border. An instance of this was Giants Stadium , which primarily hosted football, but was also an association football stadium at times. Its primary tenants, the New York Giants and New York Jets , were nominally based in New York City, but Giants Stadium

11328-550: The surface at CenturyLink Field in Seattle was approved only after the operator of the then-new stadium agreed to install a natural grass field when needed. Their concern derived from the surface potentially hindering the city's ability to attract an MLS franchise and international soccer events. In September 2006, several top Canadian soccer players appealed to the Canadian Soccer Association to install

11446-416: The time of opening) and Arrowhead Stadium . The Truman Sports Complex was the first example of multiple stadiums being built for specific sports at the same time. The designers, Kivett and Myers, were then absorbed by Kansas City architecture firm Hellmuth, Obata, and Kassabaum to become HOK Sport + Venue + Event (now the independent firm Populous ), which went on to design many professional sports venues in

11564-451: The trend of personal transportation shifting from public transit to private cars in the mid-20th century, meant that many of the stadiums of that period (multipurpose or sport-specific) were surrounded by large parking lots. In some suburban locales, hospitality, entertainment, and shopping facilities were often non-existent due to lacking the supporting population or due to municipality zoning restrictions. Suburban stadiums fell out of favor by

11682-402: The turf to bounce many of his long throws to first. The concrete or painted concrete façades of many stadiums of that era (multipurpose or sport-specific) were criticized by architects as uninviting. Most such stadiums were built in the relatively plain brutalist and international styles popular at the time, which fell out of fashion in the 1980s. Furthermore, the "concrete donut" design made

11800-517: The types of injuries were found. Athletes playing on synthetic turf sustained more skin injuries and muscle strains, while those who played on natural grass were more susceptible to concussions and ligament tears. In 2010, another FieldTurf-funded but peer-reviewed study was published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine , this time on NCAA Division I-A football, concluding that in many cases, games played on FieldTurf-branded products led to fewer injuries than those played on natural grass. However,

11918-761: The upcoming meeting on the road and playing the home game during the latter meeting. An example of the former happening was in 1997 when the Florida Marlins played game 7 of the World Series at home on Sunday, October 26, which moved the Miami Dolphins game against the Chicago Bears to Monday night. An example of the latter happening was in 1989 when the San Francisco Giants hosted a postseason game on Sunday, October 8, against

12036-488: The upper level and only sold them during the playoffs, as they were too far away to be of any use during the regular season. For football, the seats nearest the field were set farther back than at football-only stadiums to accommodate the larger baseball field. In some cases, the seats closest to the field, normally prime seats for baseball, were almost at field level for football. In general, spectator sight lines were not optimized for either sport, i.e., seats were angled towards

12154-523: The venue now known as Hard Rock Stadium . For stadiums such as the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum , where the Los Angeles Dodgers played their home games from 1958 through 1961 while awaiting completion of Dodger Stadium , this also had the undesirable effect of having unusually short foul lines, making it easier to hit so-called " Chinese home runs ". Baseball stadiums that were converted to football stadiums had more of an obtuse angle between

12272-400: Was also a big issue since the MLB postseason overlaps with the NFL regular season. If a baseball team advances in the postseason to the point where it is scheduled to play a postseason game on the same day the football team plays a home game, adjustments had to be made, such as having the game moved to Monday night or – if a division opponent were scheduled – have the game sites switched, putting

12390-650: Was also renovated with additional seating, including a 4,500-ton, three-tier movable grandstand to accommodate both baseball and football configurations. Mile High Stadium was home to the AFL / NFL Denver Broncos and the MLB Colorado Rockies franchises. For the 1996 Summer Olympics , the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG) built the temporary Centennial Olympic Stadium in

12508-440: Was also used for baseball. The original Yankee Stadium was designed to accommodate football, as well as track and field (Yankee Stadium popularized the warning track , originally designed as a running track around baseball fields), in addition to its primary use for baseball. In addition to baseball, Fenway Park and Braves Field would host college football and several professional football teams (all of whom relocated within

12626-441: Was criticized for leaving spectators exposed to the elements, and for the long distance between the stands and the pitch resulting in poor visibility. This was because the athletics track, which was seldom used, was constructed around the outside of the pitch, while views from the lower tier were also restricted due to the positioning of advertising boards. These factors contributed to low attendances; only 237 spectators showed up for

12744-478: Was demolished so that a football-specific replacement could be built on the site as part of Portugal's bid to host Euro 2004 . German stadiums such as the AWD-Arena , Commerzbank-Arena , MHPArena , RheinEnergieStadion , AOL Arena , and Zentralstadion also underwent reconstruction/renovation to remove the running track an thus become football-only venues. Several of these projects were done in preparation for

12862-1092: Was in 2002, at the Seattle Seahawks ' new stadium, known as Lumen Field . Originally planned to have a natural grass field, the Seahawks instead decided to install FieldTurf after they had played the two previous seasons in Husky Stadium on that surface. FieldTurf's first high-profile installation came in January 1997 as English club Middlesbrough chose FieldTurf for its new training field. Only artificial fields with FIFA-recommended 2-star status can be used in FIFA and UEFA Finals competitions. Other FIFA and UEFA competitions require at least 1-star status. In 2001, Boston University 's FieldTurf soccer field became FieldTurf's first to obtain FIFA 1-star status. In 2005, Saprissa Stadium in San José, Costa Rica became

12980-497: Was larger than most MLB stadiums of its era. After the 2016 season, the Braves moved to the new SunTrust Park , and Georgia State University purchased Turner Field and surrounding parking lots for a major campus expansion project. As part of this project, Turner Field was reconfigured as Center Parc Stadium , a downsized rectangular stadium that is now home to the university's football team . The first multipurpose stadium in Canada

13098-740: Was multipurpose in practice, being convertible between football and baseball. Home of the Minnesota Vikings through the 2013 season, it was also home to the Minnesota Twins until 2009 and the Minnesota Golden Gophers football team (NCAA) until 2008 as well as the Minnesota Golden Gophers baseball team (NCAA) until 2012. The Metrodome has been demolished, with U.S. Bank Stadium , built mainly for professional football but able to convert to

13216-543: Was neither in New York City or even New York State . Instead, it was in the Meadowlands of East Rutherford, New Jersey . As a result, then-Governor Mario Cuomo would not attend any games at Giants Stadium (instead choosing to attend the home games of the Buffalo Bills as they were "New York State's only team" in the NFL). A similar criticism applied to Giants Stadium's replacement, MetLife Stadium . Association football

13334-535: Was opened. It can convert between an oval for cricket, rectangle for rugby and association football, and a running track for athletics. Kalinga Stadium is a multi-purpose international sports complex in Bhubaneswar , Odisha , India . Construction was begun in 1978. It is best known as the home ground of the Indian Super League football club Odisha FC since that club's inception in 2019 . It

13452-411: Was perceived as an especially bad fit for this type of stadium because, in the United States, the sport does not draw as many fans to games as American football or baseball (with the exceptions of Atlanta and Seattle ), resulting in the stadium being filled to only a fraction of its capacity. This, combined with a desire for more compact, intimate stadiums akin to those of European football clubs, led to

13570-635: Was renovated to a baseball-only facility in 1997, three years after the Rams' departure for St. Louis. Similarly, Candlestick Park was renovated into a multipurpose stadium in 1970 to accommodate the San Francisco 49ers ' move from Kezar Stadium and converted to football-only after the San Francisco Giants moved to their new ballpark in 2000. Candlestick Park was demolished in 2015. Another baseball stadium, Denver's Mile High Stadium ,

13688-613: Was the Montreal Olympic Stadium , which was built for the 1976 Summer Olympics and initially had functions to host events of different sports and types. However, the project became obsolete over time and the stadium lost its original functions, becoming a "white elephant". The first successful such stadium was the Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton , which was built for the 1978 Commonwealth Games and

13806-571: Was the home ground of the I-League club Indian Arrows from 2018 until 2022 . Its main stadium is configured for football and athletics , with an 8-lane synthetic athletics track surrounding the football pitch. Field hockey , tennis , table tennis , basketball , volleyball , wall climbing , and swimming are accommodated elsewhere within the complex. While multipurpose stadiums were intended to easily accommodate both American football and baseball (and in some cases, association football),

13924-550: Was thereby sanctioned for international play. The complex has an indoor facility which has two indoor soccer FieldTurf fields. It also hosts administrative offices, a Mad Pizza restaurant, and a game room for children. The expansion undertaken by the complex in 2008 also included new fields along with a workout and fitness area for the Sounders FC, as well as offices for the coaching and technical staff. To retain its community-based programs and accessibility, these areas and

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