Tulane Football Announces Groundbreaking Plans for New Indoor Practice Field

The Tulane Green Wave announced a massive investment in ensuring the program’s path to the College Football Playoff.

The university is building first-class facilities for Tulane football and is moving plans for an indoor practice field to a premier location.

It’s a monumental expenditure of school resources for the football team, with head coach Jon Sumrall and athletic director David Harris working in symbiosis.

Instead of an insufficient option at Brown Field on campus, one unable to span a full 100-yard field and would disrupt intramural activities, the Claiborne Parking Lot, located behind Greer Field at Turchin Stadium, will be the site of the groundbreaking enclosed practice field.

The proposed timeline — subject to pending permit approvals — projects the field and covering will be installed around August for the start of the 2025 season.

Not only for the football team, but the facility will also serve the Green Wave’s 17 NCAA Division I sports. It will feature a form of a bubble as previously proposed but will be the necessary length for football training as the school’s press release outlines.

“The enclosed practice field will feature an inflatable, removable cover and sides and will be the approximate width of a football field,” the release said. “The domed covering will be 60 feet high to accommodate punting and kicking practice. The indoor field will be approximately 65-70 yards. The roof and sides covering the field are inflatable and can be disassembled and removed for hurricanes and other purposes.”

Importantly, the release addresses the immediate issue of parking displacement for football and baseball game days and staff and students who use the lot daily.

Tulane has secured “sufficient parking” and will contact those who hold Claiborne Lot permits once construction begins about the new, available locations.

Harris gave comments on the necessity of the field for inclement weather and top-rate facilities that put the program on a level that allows them to compete with Power 4 resources. 

“With this new indoor practice field, we’re giving our student-athletes and coaches the ability to train in a state-of-the-art, all-season venue without having to adjust their training schedules due to weather or other outside forces,” said Tulane University Athletic Director David Harris. “This is an effort Green Wave fans have longed for—one that further underscores our commitment to excellence in athletics and providing the best for our teams and supporters.”

A meeting will take place Tuesday, Feb. 11, at 6:00 p.m. in the Freeman Auditorium located in the Woldenberg Art Center, as previously announced, to discuss the project.

It’s a landmark plan and investment in the football team, something that fans have clamored for as the program reached new heights over the last three seasons with 32 wins.

When rumors circulated of Sumrall linked to open head coaching jobs last December, Harris and the school were proactive to retain their rising leader.

In the release about an extension with Sumrall, Harris commented that the necessary conversations about resources were had for Tulane football to compete at the highest level.

The plan to move the indoor practice field to Claiborne Lot is one of the most significant showings of that promise by the Green Wave since they won the Cotton Bowl.