The Bubble Over Powers Field Opens And Immediately Changes The Princeton Athletics Landscape
December 15, 2017 | General
TIGERBLOG ON THE BUBBLE
Mollie Marcoux Samaan calls its "game-changing." Chris Sailer calls it "amazing" and "awesome."
Anyone else who walks inside of it echoes those words.
They speak about the brand-new seasonal air structure - the bubble - that now stands over Powers Field at Princeton Stadium. The bubble was put in place at the conclusion of the football season, and in just a short time it has made a stunning impact on Princeton's outdoor teams.
"We felt that having an indoor venue was so important," says Marcoux Samaan, the Ford Family Director of Athletics. "It's something that we thought we could get done quickly and that would have a large impact, and it's a game-changer for so many of our programs. It's a safe and productive environment for our teams to train. It's also amazing how it looks inside."
The addition of the bubble means that Princeton's varsity teams, as well as clubs and intramurals, now have a climate-controlled, full-field indoor facility to use during the winter and into the spring. The field can be subdivided so that multiple teams can use it at the same time, and it can also be used by outside groups, helping to further integrate the Princeton campus with the local community.
Instead of using the field for five or six football games per year, Powers Field will now have a dramatic increase in the number of teams and athletes who use the facility. Construction on the bubble began in the spring, and it opened for full usage earlier this month.
"It's amazing," says Sailer, the women's lacrosse coach. "It's just an awesome facility. This will help so much in training and preparation. Instead of having to be outside in wind chills that sometimes are in single digits, we can be in a climate controlled facility, and a full-sized facility as well."
The bubble was funded through an anonymous $3.5 million dollar gift.
"We could not be more appreciative of the support from the project's benefactor, who immediately saw the enormous value that first-rate facilities play in helping us accomplish our overall mission of Education through Athletics," says Marcoux Samaan.
Mollie Marcoux Samaan calls its "game-changing." Chris Sailer calls it "amazing" and "awesome."
Anyone else who walks inside of it echoes those words.
They speak about the brand-new seasonal air structure - the bubble - that now stands over Powers Field at Princeton Stadium. The bubble was put in place at the conclusion of the football season, and in just a short time it has made a stunning impact on Princeton's outdoor teams.
"We felt that having an indoor venue was so important," says Marcoux Samaan, the Ford Family Director of Athletics. "It's something that we thought we could get done quickly and that would have a large impact, and it's a game-changer for so many of our programs. It's a safe and productive environment for our teams to train. It's also amazing how it looks inside."
The addition of the bubble means that Princeton's varsity teams, as well as clubs and intramurals, now have a climate-controlled, full-field indoor facility to use during the winter and into the spring. The field can be subdivided so that multiple teams can use it at the same time, and it can also be used by outside groups, helping to further integrate the Princeton campus with the local community.
Instead of using the field for five or six football games per year, Powers Field will now have a dramatic increase in the number of teams and athletes who use the facility. Construction on the bubble began in the spring, and it opened for full usage earlier this month.
"It's amazing," says Sailer, the women's lacrosse coach. "It's just an awesome facility. This will help so much in training and preparation. Instead of having to be outside in wind chills that sometimes are in single digits, we can be in a climate controlled facility, and a full-sized facility as well."
The bubble was funded through an anonymous $3.5 million dollar gift.
"We could not be more appreciative of the support from the project's benefactor, who immediately saw the enormous value that first-rate facilities play in helping us accomplish our overall mission of Education through Athletics," says Marcoux Samaan.
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