When the University of Cincinnati joined the Big East in 2006, it was one of two NCAA Division I football-playing schools that used game-day facilities for practices and one of two Big East schools without an indoor facility. With its steadily advancing athletic prowess, UC was in dire need of updated facilities to keep pace with athletic rivals. The only area on this landlocked campus large enough to accommodate such a facility was the steeply sloped southeast corner.
The result is a state-of-the-art practice venue that boasts a 50-foot-tall, 15,000-square-foot coaches’ tower, team rooms, a press box, a filming tower and fan amenities adjacent to a full-size regulation football/lacrosse field and a half-size practice field.
Buried underneath the half-field is a five-million-gallon water tank that saves the university nearly $1 million per year in heating and cooling costs, and UC football and lacrosse teams are protected during the offseason with a domed bubble structure on the full field.
To integrate the new fields with the rest of the campus, landscaping and pedestrian walkways peppered with the Bearcat brand converge at a central breezeway around a 15-foot-tall statue of a bearcat — the first and only such structure on campus.
Clarence-Rockland Arena, Event and Training Centre
