The College of Staten Island (CSI) inaugurates its new Soccer Complex with a ceremony that includes NYC City Council Member James Oddo (R-Mid-Island) and others kicking ceremonial soccer balls towards the CSI goalie. The ceremony and kick-off precedes two back-to-back CUNY Athletic Conference championship games on the new field with teams from CSI, John Jay, CCNY and Baruch College.

“All of us at the College of Staten Island are thrilled that our student athletes, as well as our borough’s youth and community groups, will now have a state of the art facility at which to play,” said Marlene Springer, president of CSI, during the brief ceremony held at the center of the new field. “CSI can now add its Soccer Complex to a growing list of fine athletic facilities that are second to none in the region.”

She continued by thanking the hard work of everyone that made the field possible, especially “Council Member James Oddo for helping secure the funding that made our very own field of dreams a reality.”

WHO: James Oddo, NYC Council Member, (R-Mid-Island)
Marlene Springer, President, CSI
Zak Ivkovic, CUNY Athletic Conference Executive Director
Harold Merritt, Athletic Director, CSI

WHAT: Press Event and Photo Op. Visuals include participants kicking a soccer ball towards the goalies from the four teams playing in back-to-back semi-final games of the City University of New York Athletic Conference championships. Participants will be available for comment.

WHEN: Saturday, October 30, 2004 – 10:30 a.m.

WHERE: College of Staten Island Soccer Field
(near the Astrophysical Observatory)
2800 Victory Blvd., Staten Island, NY 10314

The soccer field was constructed with $800,000 in funding from New York City Council Member James S. Oddo (R-Mid-Island). Oddo’s funding, secured in Fiscal Year 2003, allowed the Willowbrook campus to install a new type of maintenance-free artificial playing surface that duplicates the playing conditions of real grass.

The new field is being installed by the LandTek Group of Amityville, Long Island using a new technology called “Field Turf.” It is engineered to provide ideal playing conditions all year long. Marty Lyons, a former NY Jet, is the sales and marketing director of LandTek. Recent projects by LandTek include an NCAA Division 1 baseball field at Hofstra University and the NY Jets Training Facility.