Robert K. Kraft Field at Lawrence A. Wien Stadium, officially known as Robert K. Kraft Field at Lawrence A. Wien Stadium at Baker Athletics Complex,[3] is a stadium in the Inwood neighborhood at the northern tip of the island of Manhattan, New York City. Part of Columbia University's Baker Athletics Complex, it is primarily used for American football, lacrosse, and track and field events. The stadium opened in 1984 and holds 17,100 people.
In December 1921, financier George Fisher Baker purchased a new site for the university's athletics complex for $700,000. The site is at the corner of Broadway, West 218th Street, and Spuyten Duyvil Creek.
Originally named Baker Field, the facility was dedicated the following April, and the football team began playing there in 1923. It was eventually renamed Baker Athletics Complex. A 32,000-seat wooden stadium was built on the site in 1928; it was in use until 1982 when it was demolished to make room for the current Wien Stadium.
Wien Stadium
The stadium is named after Lawrence Wien, class of 1925, a former trustee, philanthropist, lawyer, and entrepreneur. The 10,500-seat southeast (home side) stands were built first; the 6,500-seat northwest stands opened two years later. For the first 11 seasons, Wien Stadium had grass; it would switch to AstroTurf in 1995 and to FieldTurf in 2005.[4]
Wien opened on September 22, 1984, with a game that ended in a loss to Harvard. Columbia did not win a game at home until October 8, 1988, over Princeton. Columbia was amid a 44-game losing streak from 1983 to 1988, the longest in NCAA records at the time.[5] In 1983 while the stadium was being built the Lions played 7 road games and 3 games in the New York City area (2 at Giants Stadium and one at Hofstra Stadium).
The field was named for Robert Kraft, class of 1963, on October 13, 2007, after he gave the school $5 million.
In April 2015, New York City FC of Major League Soccer briefly considered building new stadium at the Baker Athletics Complex. The Stadium was to be demolished and replaced by a 25,000-seat stadium to be used by NYCFC and the Columbia Lions.[6] In 2024 the soccer team began construction of its new $780 million facility at Willets Point, Queens without involving Columbia.[7]
2015 saw the installation of a new turf field, and on November 20 2015 Columbia played its first-ever Friday night home game under lights.[8]
Panoramic view looking north to the visitor grandstand and Henry Hudson Bridge in 2024
Use as COVID field hospital
In early 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, NewYork-Presbyterian / Columbia University Irving Medical Center turned Robert K. Kraft Field and Columbia Soccer Stadium into a 288-bed field hospital. The idea went from proposal to reality in a week.[9][10] The field hospital was named for Ryan F. Larkin (1987–2017), a decorated U.S. Navy SEAL who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Kate Kemplin, head nurse of the operation, described Larkin as "exactly the kind of person who would have set up a tent to treat patients if he were alive today."[11] The care center was staffed primarily with former U.S. military personnel and NewYork-Presbyterian's frontline staff.[11]
