The Chicago Plan Commission approved the 135,640 square foot facility that will feature three artificial-turf fields that can be used for baseball, football, soccer or any other field sport. Global Syn-Turf, Inc. believes that it is important to build a community life that will create convenient services and gives the children a space to play on.
Anthony Beale, who is the 9th selected official on the City of Chicago's City Council, called the Pullman Community Center a "game-changer" for South Side sports. According to Chicago news, he believes that this center will change the game outcome because of the ability for the players to play even during the worst Chicago's seasons. The team took 30 years to get back to the Little League World Series, because of weather. The center will be built with the help from NFL and Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives, such as $5 million in federal disaster funds tied to a 2008 hurricane: up to $4 million more generated by a federal tax credit available to projects built in impoverished neighborhoods and $2 million in contributions from the Chicago Bears baseball team, the Major League Baseball and some of the professional athletes.
David Doing, the president of Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives nonprofit organization, believes "the need for indoor recreational space is there. The feeling was there for good outdoor park facilities but [we didn't have] indoor facilities for families and youth to enjoy when it's cold." The facility anticipates 1,200 people will use it every week because the center will be open at night for adult sports leagues. The Chicago city officer Beale believes this will increase the ability for others to play baseball or soccer on the synthetic turf without injuries and year round comfort.
The Chicago's new center Pullman will be located next to the Bishop Ford HWY, the interstate 94 in Illinois. The building contains several swimming pools and a small water park, a multi-sport field, gymnasium with jogging track, fitness room, separate lounge for seniors and young adults for their activities like music and craft rooms, and recording studio with a 400-seat auditorium. Outside on the center the 32-acre campus will have athletic fields for several sports - including artificial turf baseball field with a scoreboard, and a three-hole pitch-and-putt golf course. Having safe and enjoyable recreational opportunities to engage children and adolescents throughout the year is so important in keeping our young people off of the streets.
With such heavily utilized fields, the Chicago city is pleased to install the artificial turf athletic fields because of the benefits that they will receive in the end. The fields will save the cost on maintenance eliminating the use of harmful pesticides, fertilizers, lawn mowing and reduce the amount of watering and replanting. Also, the synthetic grass will conserve water on a typical soccer or football field, where grass field can typically consume from 2.5 to 3.5 million gallons of water annually. Finally, artificial turf is engineered to play, feel and look like a lifelike grass. It is designed to be durable, firm, comfortable, waterproof and uniformly even. Thus, it helps decrease the injuries to the players.
