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: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/101565
FieldScience >> Miami���s Marlins Park. >> ROOF POSITION to protect the press box until All-Star break. >> WINTER SHADE line with lights out in use soccer mode. First-year turf review: Marlins Park in Miami Editor���s note: We asked Chad Mulholland, the director of grounds for the Miami Marlins��� new stadium that opened last spring, how his first year went working with the turf in the retractable roof park. Here is his response. S WITH ALL RETRACTABLE ROOF STADIUMS we have had our share of good and bad surprises. You have expectations going in and then you realize it���s not what you thought it would be like for some situations but it���s better for others. The Celebration bermudagrass was chosen before I was hired. Alan Sigwardt and his crew had some test plots they had used at Sun Life Stadium (in Miami); I believe they had a few different Bermuda varieties as well as a paspalum plot. Over the course of the summer the Celebration out-performed or was close to the best performer of the tested varieties. Being in Florida I think the comfort level of using Celebration was an easy decision. Jordan Treadway, who manages our spring training site in Jupiter, FL uses Celebration and it is in amazing shape year round. We had some moderate success with our Celebration but ran into some unknowns as well as some predictable issues. The number one problem was natural sunlight. We either had zero or sometimes up to 3 hours per day depending on the area of the field and the time of year. The other big issue that I think affected us was the constant temperature change inside the building. We would go from an air temperature of 115-120 F in July to a temp of 68-72 F by the end of night games. Then we would open back up and it would be in the mid 90s all night. I have never seen a study of constant air temperature changes but I don���t think it���s healthy for a plant. Areas where we had ample sunlight such as the center of our outfield I thought the grass performed well after we established a nutrient A 18 SportsTurf | January 2013 base and put some organics into the soil. We are 100% sand and it took a while to keep our nutrients in our rootzone. I believe our sand has some sustainable nutrient base now and we should be better in the upcoming season. Another issue that was unforeseen was our sod layer. We received some great-looking sod for the install and it was grown on sand, but it was a completely different composition from our rootzone. The sand was approved and appeared compatible, and it was until you added constant shade. The sand the sod was grown on had about 70% fine sands in it; our rootzone had around 17%. Where we had sufficient sun it was not a problem but where we had permanent or a majority of shade it stayed moist and wouldn���t shoot any roots. In those spots the Bermuda thinned out and tried to grow vertically. So we had to resod a significant amount before Opening Day and again in late May. By late May the sun is rising in a different spot and we had sunlight in right field. However, we have a carport type roof in left that blocks sun in left during the summer so our shade issue shifted from right to left. They have a huge window in left that retracts to let in sunlight so we get some early morning sunlight but it is minimal and it shifts quickly as the sun rises. We don���t get completely out of shade in left field until about 1:30. We would close the roof about 4-4:30 if weather permitted so on a good game day we received around 3-4 hours of sunlight in left field. ROOF CLOSED MORE THAN ANTICIPATED The roof was closed a lot more than initially anticipated and we never had full control of the roof until around the All Star break. It was tested at different speeds and adjusted and re-adjusted and re-tested etc. It was a constant pain in our grow-in schedule. So even though it was 90 degrees outside and bright and sunny, we had the roof closed some days to test air conditioning, fix small roof leaks and seals, and to test the roof itself. The roof shuts in about 13 minutes but it isn���t that easy; someone has to physically walk the tracks the roof rides on before any buttons are pushed. The whole process from the time I call for a closure until it���s actually closed is usually about 30 minutes. With our being in South Florida and that constant threat of rain, we have a tarp and it saved us a few times during the year. We have tried to use the roof to the best of our advantage. We have five different positions we refer to when closing or partially setting the roof. Even after commissioning we had other small issues to hammer out before we were comfortable with leaving the roof completely open on rain days when the team was on the road. We never installed windows on the press box and we kept the roof about 1/3 of the way closed for any rain threat until early July. If we left it open the press box would get flooded and it leaked to the luxury boxes underneath them. So the entire 1st base side of the skirts never got rain until July and it also robbed us of about 2-3 hours of sun a day as well basically the shade line ran from over top of the pitcher���s mound when it was closed in that position. Another thing we never anticipated was we could use the roof as a tarp if we had a threat of rain overnight we would close the roof till it www.sportsturfonline.com