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Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/232221
days during the Summer Olympic Games. And since 1996, RFK has been the home field of the DC United MLS soccer team. Field prep these days focuses on soccer for DC United, a 40-game soccer festival for AESA-ONE (the All Ethiopian Sports Association), and football for the Howard vs. Morehouse game. The main difference in maintenance between the two sports the field must service, Leak says, is the height of cut. For soccer, the turf is mowed at ¾-inch. For football, it's mowed at 1.5-inches. Two years ago, Leak says the decision was made to regrass the existing Tifway 419 bermudagrass field with a new shade-tolerant turf variety called TifGrand bermudagrass. "One of the main reasons why we switched over was the shade tolerance that this particular grass provided," says Mike Mohamed, RFK building manager. "We have an overhang that goes around the entire stadium and it creates quite a bit of shade, even in the summer months on the field. The nearside of the field and the corner will be in shade almost year round. We had a lot of issues trying to bring that turf back after play and getting it to recover because it didn't get enough sunlight. So we wanted to use this turf just to test it out to see how the recovery would be since it is a shade tolerant grass. So far, the nearside near the tunnel where we've had a lot of shade issues in the past, it's been a lot better this year. It gets a lot of traffic there. The teams warm up there so it gets a lot of wear. The field as a whole has been able to recover very well. TifGrand has been markedly better than the turf we used before." Dr. Wayne Hanna, who developed TifGrand bermudagrass at the University of Georgia, attributes the shade tolerance and fast recovery of the grass to its thick, vigorous rhizome structure. "TifGrand has a good rhizome system right below the surface so even if the tops get damaged, or if it doesn't get a lot of sun, it has a lot of reserve energy right below the ground to keep the grass moving," Hanna says. Leak says he has noticed an increase in wear tolerance with the TifGrand over the old 419 field. "The divots in the grass grow back really fast," Leak says. Even though TifGrand is quite durable, every grass has its limits. Each July since www.stma.org 2011, RFK has hosted the AESA-ONE soccer festival. The event consists of 40 semi-pro soccer matches played in just one week's time. Three weeks later, DC United is scheduled to play a league game in the stadium. "With the amount of games we played, basically from the goal mouth to the goal mouth, if you'd take the 18-yard box and just extend it all the way down, in between those areas got so torn up that there really wasn't any grass left in those spots because of the amount of games that were played. You've got to remember, it's a semi pro league, so the wear and tear, the sliding that they put on the field is a bit more than the professionals do. There's just nothing to bring back. To have January 2014 | SportsTurf 39