Pawtucket’s Centreville Bank Stadium will host the University of Rhode Island (URI)’s Rhode Island Rams for their 2026 football season while the Division I team’s home turf in Kingston undergoes significant renovations, the school announced Wednesday.
The Rams’ preliminary outing at Centreville is on Oct. 3, when the Brown Bears will host them for the Governor’s Cup — the first football game to be held at the stadium. The Rams’ home games will then continue for the 2025 season through November at Meade Stadium. In January, the stadium will embark on the most extensive portions of a $42 million renovation project that will take approximately 18 months to complete.
The Rams’ use of Centreville was brokered by URI Vice President and Director of Athletics Thorr Bjorn and Centreville Bank Stadium General Manager Paul Byrne.
“We are thrilled to partner with Centreville Bank Stadium to be our home next season,” Bjorn said in a statement Wednesday. “Not only will we be able to play in a state-of-the-art first-class facility, but it will be a chance to showcase our nationally-ranked program to our alumni and fans in a different part of the state.”
The temporary home does have a price tag attached: Bjorn told the university’s Board of Trustees in a Thursday meeting of its Student Life and Athletics Committee that “the price is about $50,000 per game, give or take, with expenses and rent” to play at Centreville Stadium.
There are 12 games in a regular season. The Rams will play five home games in the 2025 season. Game dates for the Rams’ 2026 season are forthcoming.
“We’re in a really good place to do that,” Bjorn told the trustees. “We’re also hoping that maybe that can help us attract a new fan base.”
Meade underwent smaller renovations funded by private donations in 2024, including a $1 million video board and a $4.1 million installation of new artificial turf and lighting. Roughly $42 million of the $65.8 million allocated in the 2024 state budget to improve URI’s athletics facilities will go toward Meade, which is also used by the women’s lacrosse team. The renovation includes the demolition and replacement of the east stands.
“It’s about 5,000 seats, 800 chairbacks, brand new press box,” Bjorn told the trustees. “It’s just really going to be another game changer. You know, the turf and lights were huge. The scoreboard was amazing.”
Both Meade and Centreville’s playing surface are carpeted with FieldTurf, a blend of various plastics, silica sand, and rubber meant to closely simulate real blades of grass. The material is used at numerous NFL stadiums, including Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts. A recent press release from Tarkett, FieldTurf’s France-based manufacturer, boasts the product as “virtually mirroring” the qualities of Kentucky bluegrass, a species used as a model for artificial turf design.
The 10,500-seat Centreville Bank Stadium and its high-end turf is one fruit of the ongoing Tidewater Landing redevelopment, a $132 million project that features $50 million in public subsidies and tax incentives, plus interest. The city and state will need to start paying back the debt for the soccer stadium in fiscal year 2027, relying on revenue generated by the project. Other elements of the multi-use development, such as housing and commercial space, are still in the planning stages.
Centreville opened in May as the home of Rhode Island FC, the Ocean State’s first professional soccer club. The stadium sits alongside the Pawtucket River and is billed as an all-electric venue usable for multiple sports.
This story was originally published by the Rhode Island Current.
