For the past 65 years, Butterfield Stadium has provided Ithaca College with a beautiful grass field. This year marks the first time since 1958 that this tradition will not be upheld.
Commencing Sept. 30, football games on South Hill will now be hosted on a new artificial playing surface at Butterfield Stadium.
The college’s men’s football team hosted their season home opener Sept. 30 on the new artificial turf field, taking on Hobart College. This game served not only as the kickoff to Liberty League play in the 2023 season but also as the inaugural event on Ithaca’s fresh playing surface. Players and coaches alike were filled with enthusiasm about this exciting change.
The new field is named the Bertino Field at Butterfield Stadium in recognition of Monica Bertino Wooden’s $3 million donation for the project.
Artificial turf is not the only change to Butterfield Stadium. Along with a turf field, the project has added LED lights and removed the outdoor track that surrounded the old grass field.
Once the news first broke about the new field coming to South Hill, people were not happy. Many people voiced their negative opinions about the artificial turf and the environmental concerns it raised.
As a member of the football team, I don’t see all these negatives. The only thing I see when looking at our beautiful new stadium is a great investment the school is making so that our team can succeed at the highest level. This project will elevate the football program to new heights.
Over my first three years playing football at Ithaca College, our practice schedule has been all over the place because of practicing on grass fields. Whenever there was bad weather, we were forced to change practice times to late at night or early in the morning on the Higgins Stadium turf field.
Because Higgins was not football’s main field, we were forced to have practice times around other teams like women’s soccer, field hockey and both men and women’s lacrosse teams.
As a team with over 100 players on their roster, constantly changing practice times isn’t ideal. Often, players would have to miss parts of practice if not the whole practice because of conflicting schedules.
With Bertino Field, these woes will soon be a thing of the past. These improvements will not only provide a consistent playing surface but will also offer us the flexibility to practice or play on the field under many different weather conditions. The installation of LED lights will allow us to practice, if needed, early in the morning or late at night.
Being able to practice on the same surface at the same time each day will allow us to compete at the highest level every day. As players, we won’t have to worry about the sloppy playing conditions the grass practice fields offer.
Not having to worry about the field being too muddy or the amount of daylight we have left will allow our team to pay more attention to detail during our practices and be better prepared for Saturdays.
Artificial turf will also help our coaches recruit higher-level players into our program. Prior to the installation of this field, we were in the minority of Division III schools. Almost every team in Division III plays on an artificial turf field. Us not being one of them put us at a disadvantage when it came to recruiting high school athletes.
Many athletes in high school play on turf and become familiar with the surface. Because of this, kids would often complain about how we have a grass field. Often, when I would talk to recruits, this would be a topic of discussion because recruits were hesitant about the possibility of poor playing conditions throughout the season.
Having a brand-new turf field will only help our great football program succeed in the future. As a player, I can confirm the excitement around the advancements to Butterfield Stadium. A turf field is something we have been looking forward to for some time.
Tommy Moran (he/him) is a senior sports media major. Contact him at tmoran@ithaca.edu.
