Last month we were in Europe with a look at Poland’s National Stadium and this month we move back to the USA with a look at a football (but American-style football) stadium, Sonny Lubick Field at Colorado State Stadium (referred to as Sonny Lubick Field here on) in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Name & Its Origin: Sonny Lubick is considered Colorado State University’s (CSU) most successful football coach so it is no surprise that his name has graced their football field since 2004. And then it also makes sense that the yet to be “officially named” Colorado State Stadium bears his name in its complete version. Before the start of the 2017 NCAA College Football season, we fully expect the naming rights for this brand new stadium to be sold for $400,000 or more per year.

A 50-cm color image of Sonny Lubick Field in Fort Collins, Colorado, USA collected on February 21, 2017 by Pléiades 1B. To see this stadium in SPOT 6/7 1.5-meter resolution, check out this month’s feature on SPOTMaps. This image has custom processing and color balancing applied by Apollo Mapping. © CNES 2017, Distribution Airbus Defense and Space / Spot Image S.A., France, all rights reserved.

Location: Sonny Lubick Field is currently being built on the southwest corner of Colorado State University’s campus on top of the old Meridian Avenue. Fort Collins is located in north-central Colorado along the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. The new stadium is centrally located in the growing city of Fort Collins at about 5,015 feet (1,529 meters) above sea level.

Stadium Capacity/Size, Architect & Build Date: Sonny Lubick Field has been in the works since 2012 when ICON Venue Group prepared the initial feasibility report. Officially approved by CSU’s Board of Governors on December 4, 2014, the new stadium is schedule to open on-time for the first NCAA football game of the season, featuring the Oregon State Beavers versus the CSU Rams on August 26, 2017. The $220 million Sonny Lubick Field will hold some 41,200 Rams fans.

Type of Field Surface: CSU has opted for an artificial turf surface, that being Shaw Sports Turf’s PowerBlade, which was installed in May 2017 according to this article. The new field will feature alternating stripes of light and dark green turf to help give the illusion of a natural grass field.

Key Sports Teams: Sonny Lubick Field is the new home of Colorado State University’s football team, the Rams, which finished 7 – 6 in 2016 as part of the Mountain West conference in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS).

Most Popular Yearly Event: Besides the obviously popular Rams football home games, there are more than 80 events already planned for Sonny Lubick Field, including dinners, weddings and more.

Fun Factoids: (1) Sonny Lubick Field has 208 men’s restrooms and 314 women’s restrooms, which is an increase of 97 and 186 restrooms respectively from old Hughes Stadium. There are also 19 ticket stands at the new stadium versus just 2 at Hughes! (2) CSU issued a $239 million bond to pay for the stadium – it owes $7.6 million per year from 2017 to 2020, increasing to $12.2 million from 2021 to 2055. (3) The majority of the Colorado sandstone, metal panels and glass used for the exterior of the stadium come from within 500 miles of Fort Collins.

The Pléiades 1 High-Resolution Satellite Constellation

The Pléiades 1 constellation (or at least part of it!) has been in orbit since December 2011 and if you have not had a chance to check out any sample imagery, take a few moments and have a look at the gallery on our website. If you work with high resolution imagery, you should consider Pléiades 1 for your next geospatial project.

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