Where the game is played

By Sarah Holley and Mike Guarini

While the Ivy League might be known as the Ancient Eight, Yale's athletic facilities are anything but ancient. Yale boasts some of the most modern and renowned playing areas around.

Any look at Yale facilities always begins with the Yale Bowl, known to Yalies simply as "The Bowl." Though from the outside it appears worn with age, the enormous structure houses a spectacular playing field. Built in 1914, the Bowl can seat 70,896 wildly screaming fans. Unfortunately, this size guarantees a great number of empty seats at Yale sporting events, unlike the past days of Bulldog football glory. The Game, however, still draws a crowd of 50,000 or so.

Adjacent to The Bowl is the Soccer-Lacrosse Stadium. The stadium was erected in 1981 and is surrounded by a picturesque growth of pine trees. The stadium is equipped with lights, and night games often draw a capacity crowd of 3,000 fans.

In front of the Bowl and stadium are the Cullman tennis courts. The 22 deco-turf courts are the site of the Pilot Pen International Tennis Tournament. The best part of the court area is the Connecticut Tennis Center. This massive structure seats 15,000 and is the second largest tennis stadium in the nation. Cullman courts also include five clay courts and four indoor courts.

Baseball fans will enjoy catching a game at Yale Field. Over 5,000 individual seats line the infield and are covered by a roof, giving the stadium more of an old ballpark feel. An immaculate field, lights, sunken dugouts, and a 50-foot high green wall, comparable to Fenway's Green Monster, make Yale Field a great place to spend an afternoon or evening. Students can watch the Elis, or the New Haven Ravens, the AA affiliate of the Colorado Rockies.

Most winter events are held in Payne Whitney Gymnasium. Constructed in 1932, the 9.5 story building is the second-largeest indoor athletic facility in the world behind the facility built in Moscow for the 1980 Olympics. PWG contains a 3,100 seat amphitheater, 28 squash courts, crew tanks, a fencing salon, a gymnastics room, and two swimming pools, among other things.

A favorite sports facility of many Yalies is Ingalls Rink, otherwise known as "The Whale," thanks to the distinctive humped-back roof and arching, 300-foot backbone that runs down the roof's center. Both students and city residents flock to the rink for weekend hockey games.

Yale's facilities make a great day of sports even better.

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