SportsTurf provides current, practical and technical content on issues relevant to sports turf managers, including facilities managers. Most readers are athletic field managers from the professional level through parks and recreation, universities.
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/369217
44 SportsTurf | September 2014 www.sportsturfonline.com Tools & Equipment STMA in Action News from the Sports Turf Managers Association Zusi about their preference for playing on natural grass during the World Cup. Glenn and BC have also recently conducted a number of interviews with STMA members including Seth Whitehill (Little League Baseball), Jeff Salmond, CSFM (University of Oklahoma), Mike McDonald, CSFM (University of Minnesota), Michael Stachowiz (National Park Service), Tony Leonard (Philadelphia Eagles), Dave Mellor (Boston Red Sox) and others. Buffalo Communications media relations efforts have resulted in stories of sports turf managers appear- ing inSports Illustrated, Minnesota Star Tribune, BleacherReport.com,The Globe and Mail, Boston Globe, The Tennis Channel, USA Today, Michigan's Big Show, Washington Post, Recreation Management, SportsBusiness Journal and more. For a complete list of this media rela- tions effort, please visit stma.org. If you are a member with a great story to tell, reach out to Sales and Marketing Manager Shant Thomas at sthomas@stma.org so we can get it out there! Spotlight: On the field, and on STMA Many sports turf managers don't like to be in the spot- light; they prefer to let their great playing surfaces speak for themselves. Recently however, the profession was highlighted in a PBS special entitled "Spotlight: On the Field" produced by the association and aired nationally. STMA CEO Kim Heck played the special at the associa- tion's Annual Meeting and Lunch in San Antonio this past January with a promise to update members when the results of those airings came in. "Spotlight: On the Field" was a rousing success! With this specific type of video, the interested produc- ing party works with a company to put together the piece, which is then submitted to a central pool of videos that PBS stations across the country can then draw from. STMA was guaranteed a minimum number of airings, but that number can be exceeded if station managers receive requests to re-air a broadcast or simply choose to re-rerun it. In a letter to STMA, Tower Productions Vice President of Communications Michael Casey stated the video "did well," adding it "air[ed] 878 times in 49 percent of all U S television households, reaching a gross audience of 4,431,900 viewers." These airings took place in 207 major markets, from New York, NY and Bowling Green, KY to Las Vegas, NV and Terre Haute, IN. Thank you to all who assisted in the production of this video to place a much-needed spotlight on our fields. The video is available for viewing on the association's website, stma.org and via our YouTube channel (accessible via stma.org).-By Shant Thomas, Sales and Marketing Manager. ■ Press coverage and other highlights: sports turf managers in the news "I've always enjoyed competing at the highest level on natural grass and I'm glad FIFA decided to go this route with all 12 World Cup venues," says Matt Besler, Sporting KC and US men's national team defender. "I was very impressed with the playability and conditions in Brazil, especially how well the field drained in Recife for our final group stage match against Germany." Quote secured by Glenn Gray/Buffalo Communications, July 31, 2014 "Natural grass fields take much more energy to prepare for elite competitions like the FIFA World Cup," says Graham Zusi, Sporting KC and US men's national team midfielder. "The time spent preparing them is much appreciated by the players, as the touch and feel on grass is more consistent." Quote secured by Glenn Gray/Buffalo Communications, July 31, 2014 " M a i n t a i n i n g immaculate yet playable grass tennis courts is a balancing act for head groundskeeper Mike Buras, CSFM and his 12-person crew at Longwood Cricket Club in Chestnut Hill. The fibrous poa annua species used on Longwood's 25 grass courts is a native variety that is frequently labeled a weed, but Buras says when properly managed, it makes a desirable court surface. 'Grass is a living thing, and we learn to push the limits to make the courts as good as can be,' said Buras, 53." From "Serving up the right grass for tennis" by Cindy Atoji Keene, Boston Globe correspondent http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2014/08/02/groundskeeper-serves-grass- courts-for-tennis/1p0fU2zYXkskbFPTq8giuI/story.html "When the Giants opened up a new team headquarters called Timex Performance Center (since renamed Quest Diagnostics Training Center) in 2009, the organization hired [Rob] Davis to be its head groundskee- per. This past week, Davis, also a member of the Sports Turf Managers Association, put the finishing touches on a Quest facility that will host its second consecutive training camp after the Giants moved home from the University at Albany last year." From "Behind the Scenes: New York Giants Head Groundskeeper Shares His Insight" by Kevin Boilard, Featured Columnist, BleacherReport.com http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2135198-behind-the-scenes-new-york-giants- head-groundskeeper-shares-his-insight "Andy McNitt is a leading authority on all grasses, both natural and artificial, as the director of the Center for Sports Surface Research at Penn State University. He is also a long-time member of the US-based Sports Turf Managers Association. McNitt sees no reason why the Blue Jays will not be able to lay grass down within Rogers and have it thrive. 'It's going to be a big investment in the lights, but cer- tainly we have the technology to grow grass indoors,' he said." From "Rogers Centre looking to make artificial grass a thing of its past" by Robert MacLeod, The Globe and Mail (Canada) http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/baseball/field-of-dreams/arti- cle18955544/