From Vision to Game Day: Extraordinary Sports Venue Makeovers

If you’re an avid sports fan, you likely have vivid memories of thrilling performances by some of your favorite athletes. But what you might not know off the top of your head are some of the amazing stories behind creating the venues where those feats took place. At BrightView, we’ve had the pleasure of transforming numerous iconic stadiums, restoring storied fields to their original glory and converting others to serve new purposes in record time. Read on to dig into a few of our favorite mind-blowing transformations.

Rickwood Field

Restoring the Oldest Professional Ballpark in the Country

The oldest professional baseball stadium in the country has seen its share of stars. Dating back to 1910, Rickwood Field was home to the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro Leagues. It hosted the likes of Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Yogi Berra, Jackie Robinson, and Willie Mays. So, when the MLB announced a special game paying tribute to Rickwood Field’s legacy, BrightView was enlisted to renovate the entire playing surface, bringing it up to modern standards.

The feat entailed removing 5,000 tons of material, including excavating 100 years of chalk from both foul lines, which had solidified into a 10-inch-thick-mass. After, 6,000 tons of sand, clay, and warning track were brought in, along with 120,000 square feet of a new Bermudagrass, Tahoma31, for the infield and outfield. The project was completed just in time for the San Francisco Giants vs. St. Louis Cardinals game, the first ever regular season MLB game to be held at the historic field.

Bristol Motor Speedway

From Speedway to World-Class Baseball Field

Can a speedway be turned into world-class regulation-sized MLB field in just 30 days? You bet. BrightView made it happen at the Bristol Motor Speedway.

BrightView and its partners turned the speedway’s asphalt track and infield pit lane into 124,000 square feet of AstroTurf Diamond Series and infield dirt. The transformation required nearly 18,000 tons of gravel to level the field. Over the course of a month, the team temporarily removed pit walls, select signage and lights, Sunoco fuel tanks, and half of the Goodyear building. And it was all completed in time for a Cincinnati Reds and Atlanta Braves match-up, the first American or National League game to be held in Tennessee.

SoFi Stadium

World-Class Soccer Pitch in Under a Month

You probably know SoFi Stadium as the home of the Los Angeles Rams, but you may be surprised to learn it’s also served as a soccer venue, too.

BrightView helped meticulously convert SoFi’s artificial turf field to a regulation soccer pitch for the 2025 Concacaf Nations League Finals, featuring 40 national teams from across the Americas. The 80,000 square feet of natural turf required was grown nearly a year in advance in Washington, then harvested and sent to California. BrightView covered the existing artificial turf with a flooring layer, followed by Permavoid, an innovative stormwater control structure, and finally 6 inches of USDA sand-based rootzone. Once the final match was complete, the entire pitch was removed within 14 days.

Field of Dreams

Bringing the Timeless Movie to Life

Field of Dreams came out in 1989, but in 2021, the dream was reignited when BrightView helped build an MLB stadium in the famous Dyersville, Iowa, cornfield. Construction began in 2019 and required digging and moving 30,000 cubic yards of soil to level the field amidst the unique challenge of “corn sweat”—which makes humidity particularly intense. However, the result was well worth the effort. Today, fans can walk along a pathway through the cornfields, past the original Field of Dreams movie site, before arriving at the newly-constructed park.

From cornfields and speedways to historical sites, these amazing stories are just the beginning of our Sports Turf roster. For more fascinating projects, click here. Or, contact us to start writing your own game-changing story.

Field of Dreams © Universal City Studios LLC. All Rights Reserved.