As Cornell’s field hockey team looks forward to the 2025 fall season, the future remains unknown due to renovation setbacks that may leave the team without a home field.
Field hockey’s original home field, Marsha Dodson, was destroyed as part of a project to make an artificial turf field, among other improvements. However, according to a statement from Athletic Director Nicki Moore, the timeline of this project — dubbed “Game Farm Road” — has been delayed.
Moore revealed in a recent statement that “recent municipal efforts have delayed [the] project timeline,” and ultimately jeopardized the team’s game and practice space. Moore apologized for “not offering adequate communication” in sharing developments with the field hockey community and for not “listen[ing] to [her] project team colleagues when they warned [her] of growing timeline risks.”
This delay follows a series of complaints about environmental concerns from Ithaca residents.
The next closest NCAA-regulated field hockey pitch is located 52.2 miles off campus in Syracuse, posing challenges for the next season. For a team that was nationally ranked No. 16 in 2023 and played some close and thrilling games on Marsha Dodson Field last fall, this comes as very disappointing news.
Cornell’s plan for Game Farm Road’s new athletic complex was published in June 2015 and was set to be completed before the beginning of the Fall 2025 semester.
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The stadium was set to be located on 15.65 acres in the Town of Ithaca, east of McGovern Fields. The project was also going to include other improvements, including a state-of-the-art drainage system, coaches’ offices, a new press box, a team facility and a formalized 120-space parking area for fans, coaches and players.
The plan was divided into two phases: first, the field hockey pitch would be constructed with synthetic turf. Along with the new turf, two buildings containing restrooms and a press box, a 10,000-gallon water storage tank for field irrigation and two team dugouts were to be constructed.
The second phase of the plan included a larger building that would hold offices, meeting rooms, a team locker room, a physical training room and a small indoor practice space which would also use synthetic turf.
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In August 2024, Prof. Frank S. Rossi, plant science, made a statement to the Ithaca Planning and Development Board conveying his belief that, although the natural grass field would have been best for the environment, the “lack of available playing surfaces on campus” created a unique demand that only a synthetic turf surface could keep up with.
The turf met all of the relevant New York State Environmental Conservation Laws and
was to be reused and recycled until the end of its typical eight to twelve-year life span.
Despite Rossi’s statement and the turf’s compliance with New York State law, citizens of Ithaca listed out many environmental concerns in email complaints to the Town of Ithaca Planning Board. Concerns included worries about air, water and soil contamination, disposal of the artificial turf and microplastics carried by wind into water systems — which have the potential to harm the surrounding ecosystem.
The field hockey team currently uses the indoor turf in the Ramin Room for their spring practices, but they will be unable to compete here formally, as the space does not comply with NCAA standards.
Clarification, January 29, 7:15 p.m.: This article has been updated to use more accurate language regarding the people who have raised environmental concerns.
Correction, January 29, 4:20 p.m.: This article has been updated to more accurately reflect the language Athletic Director Nicki Moore used in her statement on the delay.