I
f you believe irrigation consultants just know sprinkler
systems, you're way off the mark. The American Society
of Irrigation Consultants (ASIC) has spent the past
40-plus years training and supporting irrigation profes-
sionals in the industry in emerging water codes and regulations,
water resource development and quality, turf management, soil
science, chemistry, agronomy, horticulture, business develop-
ment, marketing — you get the idea.
We caught up with Jeff Bruce, ASIC immediate past
president, and principal of Jeffrey L. Bruce & Company (JLB)
in North Kansas City, Mo. Bruce founded JLB in 1986,
and has rocketed to the top of the sports turf industry since,
completing about 600 professional and NCAA sports com-
plexes in the past 10 years alone, including Alex Box Baseball
Stadium at LSU, Carolina Panthers Stadium, University of
Kentucky Commonwealth Stadium, and Notre Dame Athletic
Complex.
We asked Bruce what's trending in sports turf irrigation. His
vision of the future might surprise you — it did us.
ASIC: Tell me about the role of an irrigation consultant in
overall design and management of sports fields. How has that
evolved over the past decade?
JLB: Our perspective is probably a little different because we
don't just consider the playing field; we profile the entire sports
complex as an integrated system. These enterprises should be
completely interconnected from the bottom up; drainage, catch-
ment, soil profile, irrigation, turf type, and so forth. Then we
consider usage, safety, longevity, resilience, budget, and mainte-
nance and management needs and capabilities. Then we look at
the surrounding grounds, the plant material, the water sources,
the practice facilities, the parking facilities. It's all interrelated.
Remember that for every stadium venue there are several
practice fields that are used much more intensively. Typically
there are more business opportunities for those than the stadi-
ums so we like to tie them all together.
This has evolved into a business model for us that requires
a lot of specialty expertise. I'm not sure anyone else does it,
but clients like managing an entire project through a single
consultant.
What's trending in
sports turf irrigation
with Jeff Bruce
18 Green Media July 2014 www.greenmediaonline.com
Q&A
By Luke Frank
Alex Box Baseball Stadium at LSU. Photos credit Jeffrey L. Bruce & Company.
I absolutely believe there will
be intensive new regulations
in water sourcing very soon.
— Jeff Bruce
Jeffrey L. Bruce, FASLA
