Saint Rose Rededicates Sullivan Field - Made Possible with Funding from City of Albany and Albany County

Media contact: Denise Dagnino, Director of Communications
Contact info:  518.817.2630 (mobile), dagninod@strose.edu 

Albany, New York – The College of Saint Rose has announced the completion of a total turf replacement at the R. Mark and Kathleen Sullivan Field, located within the Christian Plumeri Sports Complex. This project was made possible through funding from the City of Albany and Albany County. The Sullivan Field is home to the College’s NCAA Division II women’s and men’s soccer and lacrosse teams. When the complex was built, it provided permanent home fields for the first time in Saint Rose’s history.

After 13 years of use by Saint Rose and community athletes, the original turf, three years past its projected life span, was in need of replacement. This is the first time the playing surface has been fully replaced since the opening of the sports complex in 2010.

Saint Rose President Marcia J. White, Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan, and Albany County Executive Daniel P. McCoy rededicated the Sullivan Field in a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday, September 27, at 4:30 p.m.

“We are incredibly grateful to the City of Albany and Albany County for making the replacement of the turf on the R. Mark and Kathleen Sullivan Field possible,” White says. “We are proud of our long-standing partnership with the City of Albany and Albany County, and our coaches and Golden Knights athletes look forward to working with the City and County on providing programming and mentoring to Albany’s youth. This project protects and preserves this incredible City-owned community asset to keep our athletes playing and brings our neighborhood children back on the field. It exemplifies the College’s founding values of being integrated with and serving our City and community.”

The Christian Plumeri Sports Complex is named for the late son of global business leader Joseph J. Plumeri. The multi-field complex opened in the Fall of 2010 after Plumeri announced a $1 million challenge gift to Saint Rose to establish home facilities for the College’s outdoor athletic programs and provide the Albany community with increased recreational opportunities.

“The College of Saint Rose is an important partner to the City of Albany, not only as an institution of higher learning but as a leader in local athletics,” says Sheehan. “The Sullivan Field renovation will ensure that our local scholar-athletes have a state-of-the-art playing surface and that our young residents have a premiere amenity for camps and clinics throughout the year. Thank you to President White and County Executive McCoy for partnering with the City of Albany to make this field renovation a reality.”

The benefits of the new field expand beyond collegiate sports to encompass the community. It will continue to host City and County recreational programming, including youth sports, summer camps, and adult recreational leagues.

“Albany County is a proud partner of The College of Saint Rose, and this collaboration to install new turf on the Sullivan Field within the Plumeri Sports Complex is just the latest example. This was not only an investment in collegiate athletics, but also an investment in expanding our youth recreational programming,” Albany County Executive Daniel P. McCoy says. “I’m excited that we will now be able to offer Albany County’s quality sports programs at yet another top-notch facility, one conveniently located here in the City of Albany.”

The Sullivan Field, named in honor of the College’s eighth president, R. Mark Sullivan and his wife Kathy, is home to Saint Rose’s NCAA Division II women’s soccer, men’s soccer, women’s lacrosse, and men’s lacrosse teams. The women’s soccer program has made 17 NCAA tournament appearances in the last 20 years and the current team is ranked number 2 in the nation by the United Soccer Coaches NCAA Division II National Poll.

 

About the R. Mark and Kathleen Sullivan Field: The field now features a new turf surface installed by Keystone Sports Construction, based in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, and boasts a colorful sideline layout with increased visibility of the Saint Rose and Golden Knights logos. Since 2007, the City of Albany and the College have successfully maintained a public-private partnership in The Christian Plumeri Sports Complex at Hoffman Park in the Delaware and Second Avenue neighborhoods. The City-owned complex, developed by an initial investment of $6M by the College in 2010, is maintained by the College for both City and College use. Under a 30-year lease approved by the Albany Common Council in 2007, The College of Saint Rose developed, improved, and invested in the part of Hoffman Park bounded by McCarty and Frisbie Avenues. The City continues to hold title to the parkland and owns all of the improvements made by Saint Rose.

About The College of Saint Rose: Founded in 1920, The College of Saint Rose is a private independent college in the state capital of Albany, New York. The College is home to nearly 3,000 undergraduate and graduate students across many programs. It is a top granter of degrees and certificates in education in the state, has one of the top forensic psychology programs in the country, and offers the only Cold Case Analysis Center in New York, where students in the fields of criminal justice, forensic psychology, and forensic science work alongside law enforcement on real cold cases. Students experience a Theory in Action approach to learning in their undergraduate and graduate studies, and the College still lives its founding mission of serving the dear neighbor and meeting the needs of the times.