CSNbbs

http://blog.syracuse.com/orangefootball/...green.html

With construction of the new basketball practice facility underway, Manley Field House was transformed into an indoor practice field, which will immensely help football! This is only temporary, but once the practice facility is finished, the turf will be installed permanantly.

Quote:The two field hockey players walked onto the spanking new turf of the old practice facility at Syracuse University with smiles and disbelief Sunday afternoon. There was a roof over their heads. There was heat in the room. There was a new place to play.
Manley Field House has returned to part of its original purpose - which was to be a multiple-sport indoor practice facility.

"Oh wow. Cool," they said, then promptly dumped a bucket of balls onto the field.

Over the weekend, a new green synthetic turf was installed inside the rubber track that runs along the perimeter of the facility on SU's South Campus area. Gone are the basketball court and various rubber surfaces for track. It's all been replaced by a large, circular green carpet that will serve various SU teams such as lacrosse and football that typically struggle for indoor winter practice space because of the basketball setup at the Carrier Dome.

The green carpet - which is more like Astroturf than FieldTurf - has been marked off with football symbols such as sidelines, yard lines and hash marks. The field stretches 70 yards from end to end. There are at least 40 yards where the circular turf stretches fully between sidelines.

Syracuse director of athletics Daryl Gross has long identified indoor practice space in the winter as one of his program's greatest needs. He looked into fitting an inflatable bubble over the outdoor track but ran into zoning issues.

He decided long ago to refit Manley Field House into a second practice facility. With women's basketball moved into the Carrier Dome and the construction of a basketball facility on the North Side of the Manley complex, the old arena was readied for conversion to an indoor practice area.

The biggest beneficiaries at the moment should be the SU men's and women's lacrosse teams, which never have full indoor fields for practice in winter. Both typically use the Carrier Dome, but then only get half a field because of the basketball set up. The Manley Field House conversion gives them nearly a full field.

The Orange women used the field Sunday morning for practice.

Syracuse football should break in the field Monday with its early morning agility drills. The NCAA allows coaches to be involved in those types of organized conditioning drills because there no footballs or plays allowed. However, if players want to play toss and catch on their
own, they now have a place.

Cost of the project is unknown. Several signs taped to doors leading into the arena said it would be "closed for all activities" from Thursday to Sunday.