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/162108
with a neighbor to help his son repair his damaged house, as more rain was expected. Others were not so fortunate with their houses. I have never seen so much destruction immediately following an EF 5 tornado. Homes completely gone, down to the slab of concrete that it was built on, water coming out of pipes, telephone poles snapped and electric power lines laying on the ground and the heavy smell of natural gas, cars overturned and mangled, and debris spew all over the place wondering where it came from. There were members of our athletic staff at OU that completely Figure 2 lost their homes. People that I know whose families' lost everything. My wife and I housed a father and his son, displaced by the tornado, for a week at our house. So much loss. Initial estimates indicated that it will cost upwards of $2 billion. It will take years to rebuild, just like in 1999; some say that it was worse. One aspect of Oklahomans, they come together, as they have done so many other times in the past. People helping people; strangers pitched in and helped clean up Moore and the surrounding areas. Support from so many others across the nation. Native Oklahoman and country music singer Blake Shelton put on a benefit concert at the Chesapeake Arena in OKC that raised an estimated $6 million. Triages and relief set up at the churches surrounding the damaged area. Meals, clothing, shelter all provided by people in the surrounding communities. Country music star Toby Keith, a native of Moore who resides in Norman, decided to have a concert billed as the Oklahoma Twister Relief Concert. The site was Owen Field on the campus of the University of Oklahoma on July 6. To add to the docket, Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, Ronnie Dunn, Willie Nelson, John Anderson, Mel Tillis, Sammy Hagar, a video performance by Carrie Underwood and a few other artists were scheduled. The concert sold out in less than an hour with a ticket price of $25. The concert is speculated to be the largest concert ever in the state of Oklahoma, with an attendance of 65,000+. All proceeds from the concert went to the United Way to go to those impacted by the tornadoes. So many aspects of putting the concert on were donated: field protection system, trucking, stage, rigging, lighting, equipment. All put together in a matter of 3 ½ weeks. Not an ideal time to be putting on a concert in July, when many of these things are spoken for the summer and other tours. CHALLENGE AHEAD This is where the turf manager's hat comes off; all the things of "No… not a concert in July during the heat of the summer!" instead are "how are we able to help people in need, people that have nothing?" This was an improvised concert but put together by some of the best in the business. All resources had to be pooled together quickly. Our challenge as turf managers at OU was to save as much as the field as we could understanding we were in a non-revenue, donating situation with this event. Our administration in OU Athletics assured us that any replacement needs would be fulfilled. Once we received confirmation that we would be hosting a concert, the first phone calls I placed were to Michael Beane, CEO of Terraplas, and Kyle Waters, VP of Operations at the StubHub Center in Carson, CA. Both have ties to Oklahoma, as Mike had a daughter here at OU in 1999 and Kyle is a native Oklahoman. Both immediately jumped on board in support. Mike supplied the Terratrak drivable roadway and Kyle provided the Terraflor. Load-in of the Terratrak started late Monday evening July 1 with the stage steel set-up starting on July 2. Three days of stage building, a production day and then the all-day concert. Terratrak around the stage was down 6 days, the Terraflor for the seating area was down just over 48 hours. During the 6 days while it was down, the Terratrak surrounding the stage received heavy use of forklifts, a 40ton crane and two 5 ton flat-bed trucks. We were able to omit a Terratrak roadway in front of the stage during a majority of the stage build. This was key as we were able to keep the heavy weighted traffic off of the main area of the playing surface and off to the sideline areas. Some stadium events you have months of preparation for, we had a couple of weeks. We felt we went into the Terratrak build with about the right amount of moisture in the sand base as well as supplementing the TifSport bermudagrass with ample amounts of potassium, magnesium and elements to strengthen the grass's cellular walls. We were also very lean on nitrogen and the field was rolled and firmed up with SETTING UP for the concert. www.stma.org SportsTurf 27