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/251524
30 SportsTurf | February 2014 www.sportsturfonline.com Facility & Operations have significant investment in a facility with lights, parking, bathrooms and such, so why not use the facility to maximum potential? It is the same argument used for considering syn- thetic turf. The alternative is build additional fields, go syn- thetic, provide fewer programs, all of which cost money. I would suggest compare cost of a new synthetic field annually over an 8-year replacement schedule compared to annual re- placement with SOP down the center of the field along with additional goal mouth and lacrosse crease SOP replacement. Then ask your players what surface they would prefer to play on throughout the year. This is not an answer to all situations, just a consideration. But having an alternative resource for intense-use natural grass field with minimal down time is a tool every field manager needs in the bag. The key to incorporating SOP into a turf management program is to plan ahead and secure a source. The supply of sod grown on plastic is limited, but we have seen sev- eral new vendors in the marketplace. Several of our clients have already ordered our product for fall/winter of 2014. We cur- rently ship the product 12-15 hours from our farm, and are looking at possible satellite locations. So just coordinating trucking can sometimes be the biggest challenge. You also need a good prep and install plan for handling the turf. The equip- ment is similar to traditional sod replacement, but the added weight to move and manipulate the product creates an addi- tional challenge. Removing turf from a field a few days before a big game involves a significant level of trust in the sod supplier and in the installer. For smaller jobs such as goal mouths, in- stalling SOP in-house is a good option. Just remember if you are bringing in 1.5 inch, you need to remove 1.5 inch. That is a lot of soil. BREAK OUT THE WAR PAINT— UNIQUE APPLICATIONS In December 2011, WFI Stadium Inc. (FedEx Field) was faced with the task of logo replacement between games when they hosted the annual Army Navy Game less than 24 hours before Washington hosted the Patriots. The solution? Paint the sod before its harvested. This had to be an historic first in the field replacement industry. The sod for the NFL game was pre- painted before being cut, transported and then installed. Before the install, the grounds crew came to Carolina Green's sod farm in Indian Trail, NC to paint the midfield logo and end zones game. The sod was harvested, each roll numbered and logged, then transported to FedEx Field to await install. Man- agement elected to only replace the in-field logos between the games and leave the Army-Navy end zones in tact as a tribute to the armed services. After the NFL game the end zones were replaced with the prepainted sod as well. The "overnight success" of the WFI-Carolina Green field replacement industry milestone at FedEx Field was reasonably assured because the key sod grown on plastic component had already been field tested by the Philadelphia Eagles and de- clared a winner. Over the past 3 years the Eagles have used the product to replace just the sod between the hash marks and end zones of Lincoln Financial Field. Tony Leonard, the Eagles' director of grounds, reports, "The sod on plastic grown by Car- olina Green provides us with a solid and stable playing surface in the middle of our field. We had to get through six games in November and this was the best choice for us to match up our existing bermuda grass." n Carolina Green Corp. is a North Carolina-based Certified Field Builder. They operate two Bermuda grass sod farms and em- ploy 35 full-time employees and travel throughout the south & eastern United States constructing and renovating natural and synthetic athletic fields for professional, college, high school and recreation level use. The company can be viewed on the web at www.cgcfields.com. Chad Price, CSFM, CFB can be reached at 866-753-1707 or cprice@cgcfields.com. The sod for an NFL game was pre-painted before being cut, transported and then installed. Replacing the turf at the University of Virginia's David A. Harrison III Field at Scott Stadium.