Sustaining Sport Fields and Arenas

Something so horrendous. Something so unbelievable. Something which seems incurable; Global warming. A rising issue in our global environment once affecting our environment is now affecting our sports fields and arenas. Just think about the last time you bought tickets to a ball game with the dome open and what happened? It got rained out. You felt helpless with the worthless tickets just sitting there in your pockets. Or imagine the time when you wanted to go outside for a nice swim on a sunny day in the summer. The result was a random thunderstorm which ruined all your plans. The bottom line is “Global warming is not coming; it is here” (Wolff 1) Due to this, certain changes are going to have to be made to our sports, sports fields and arenas.

Global warming is caused by human activities around the globe. These range from using cars to consuming too much electricity. “Greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide produced by the burning of coal, oil and gas are now trapping solar heat that once escaped from the Earth’s atmosphere. This makes temperatures rise everywhere on the globe.”(Wolff 1)  As temperatures around the globe increase, oceans are warming and fields are drying up. The snow is melting and more rain is falling. This is causing sea levels to rise. Tropical storms that were a category 4 storm are now changing into a category 5 storm. An example of this would be Hurricane Katrina. All these changes are unbelievable. “In the last year and a half, scientists have noticed that once indestructible ice sheets on Greenland and Antarctica have begun to creep toward the sea.” (Wolff 1)

Due to these changes, the sports we watch and play are greatly being altered. The weather has gone to its extreme a few times in the past year. One day in November 2008, enough snow fell at Colorado’s Beaver Creek to cause the cancellation of practice for the men’s downhill at a World Cup event. Similarly, a day later on the other side of the globe, officials at the French resort of Val d’Isère called off another World Cup event on account of too little snow, as well as a forecast of prolonged warm temperatures. The hard to accept fact is, that was only one of the seven world cup events that were cancelled in Europe during 2008 due to weather conditions. The answer to this problem is clear, something has to be done to end this trauma, but however, many say we are losing the fight. “There are many important environmental battles to be fought,” says Bill McKibben, a Vermont-based writer, activist and passionate cross-country skier. “But if we lose this one — which we’re doing — none of the others matter. It’s crunch time.” (Going, Going Green, Wolff)  

The good news is, plans are already being implemented to fight global warming. Stadiums and arenas, if built with green plans, can be more than symbolic landmarks to show the human race that we are in this together. The first thing in plan is to build the stadiums near a public transit line. Thus meaning no need for a vast parking lot. Only enough for the visiting team and its social conveners. Turbines mounted on the upper first deck would catch the same wind that plays whimsically with pop fly balls and turn the wind into a source of power to offset at least some of the energy demands of a ball game. Just like the Gillette Stadium in Fox borough, Massachusetts, a water filtration system could be implemented. This takes the “black” or “grey” water and filters it back. The water is then used for most of the beer sold. Another great filtration system is a golf course. “It can serve as a huge filter, with the water draining from it cleaner than the water flowing in.” (Wolff 2) All these changes being made to fields and sports arenas will certainly help go green and fight global warming with full strength.