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.
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Q&A The new normal? We keep hearing people say the ex- BY DR. GRADY MILLER Professor, North Carolina State University Questions? Send them to Grady Miller at North Carolina State University, Box 7620, Raleigh, NC 27695- 7620, or email grady_miller@ncsu.edu Or, send your question to David Minner at Iowa State University, 106 Horti- culture Hall, Ames, IA 50011 or email dminner@iastate.edu. Q tendee I have also have been hearing this expression on a regular basis— almost always in reference to our current situation as a result of a poor economy. It has become so overused that I personally dislike the phrase almost as much as the now infamous, "We have to do more with less." First, let's define normal. The statistician in me suggests that the word normal is an indirect refer- ence to the concept of a normal distribution. A normal distribution is when there is an expect value (or a mean) around which there are observations distributed more or less equally below and above the mean. When looked at as a graph, the result is a "bell-shaped curve." One standard deviation accounts for about 68% of the observations closest to the mean. Two standard deviations account for 95% of the observations. A new normal distri- bution could have different means and/or different standard devia- tions. So, basically a new norm would be an experience that is very different than before and/or an ex- treme experience well outside a typical expectation. The shift in the norm may not have a direct cause. For instance there has been a domino effect in sports that has influenced the sports turf manager's norm. The best examples related to budget re- ductions. In many cases game at- tendance at sporting events has suffered due to the economic situa- tion of the fans. Some have either lost their jobs or have the threat of a lost job. The result is that many people are be spending a greater percentage of their household in- 50 SportsTurf | January 2012 pression, "the new normal". In terms of sports turf management, what does that mean to you? Missouri Turfgrass Meeting at- come on food, clothing, and shel- ter and less on items viewed as non-essential. A significant drop in average attendance results in lower revenue, so field managers have seen budgets reduced in response to the new attendance average. The same may be true of in terms par- ents paying for their kids to partic- ipate in sports. The field manager is not the only one making tough decisions that may influence field quality. Companies that have turf products are experiencing the same types of economic shifts. Different types of "new normal" may be the extremes in weather many of you have experienced the last few years. The yearly climate averages across the US may not be that different but many areas have experienced extremes in tempera- ture, drought, and flooding. So, the "new normal" concept may be applied to much more than just our economy. I keep hearing people say, "I will go back to doing ______ when the economy gets better." The blank may be filled with aerat- ing, topdressing, weed control, etc. The problem is that if a sports field is to be maintained at a certain level of quality, it needs these prac- tices regardless of the economy and weather. This new norm may really put the sports turf manager in a tough decision-making situation. A field manager still needs to provide a safe playing surface. The field manager is not the only one making tough decisions that may influence field quality. Companies that have turf products are experiencing the same types of economic shifts. Suppliers are sell- ing lower quantities of products, so they have to make hard business decisions. For instance, the Gowan Company recently announced it would cease Rubigan sales on De- cember 31, 2012. For many years Rubigan has been the go-to prod- uct for spring dead spot control and has been used for pre-mer- gence control of Poa annua on warm-season grasses. For Gowan Company this was strictly an eco- nomic decision based on reduced sales. Look for the disappearance of more products in the next few years. There is also the Imprelis herbi- cide story from 2011. Imprelis was a great post-emergence product for controlling broadleaf weeds in turf- grasses. It was then linked to the death of thousands of Norway spruces, eastern white pines, and other selected tree species. The EPA forced its removal from the market. The liability was too great to keep it around. This situation will forever change the release of new products. One company rep- resentative told me to not expect any new herbicide products in the turf market for the next 10 years. This does not include generic products and older products re-la- beled for use in turf. So, these are just a few examples of shifts in what was considered normal. We will continue to have to adjust how we do our jobs, keeping our standards and user groups in mind. The often quoted American Senator Everett Dirksen once said, "I am a man of fixed and unbending principles, the first of which is to be flexible at all times." I believe that is an approach we should all consider adopting if we are to succeed with our new nor- mal. ■ www.sportsturfonline.com