Baker Field Stadium

Baker Field is an outdoor athletic complex located at the northern tip of Manhattan, and best known as the home field for the prestigious Columbia University. The land was first purchased and donated by George F. Baker as a gift to the university in 1921, but wasn’t used for competition until 1923 when its first namesake football stadium was opened with a capacity of 15,000. That stadium was renovated five years later to increase its spectatorship to 32,000 fans in their wooden stands.

In 1939 the Baker Field complex became the first field to broadcast a live sporting event, when NBC broadcasted a baseball game between Columbia and Princeton at Robertson Field. The primary football stadium was later torn down and replaced by Lawrence A. Wein Stadium, which presently serves as the home field for Columbia’s football and lacrosse teams. Dominated by Wein Stadium, Baker Field also includes state-of-the-art softball fields, hockey rinks, tennis courts and rowing facilities.

Parking at Baker Field is limited around the stadium, so the university advises spectators and competitors to use mass transit.