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/282941
28 SportsTurf | April 2014 www.sportsturfonline.com MARCH 2014: Thousands of fans lined up outside the new stadium as 2 years of pent up anticipation finally comes to a head. Opening weekend at a new ballpark can be very stressful on a groundskeeper. Opening weekend with a torrential rain can be a nightmare. For John Knight CSFM, director of facilities and fields at the new Cubs Park, it was time to take a deep breath. "It's actually been a relief to get into day-to-day game activities. It is my first chance to exhale!" he said. The new training facility for the Chicago Cubs, conjoined with the new Riverview Park in Mesa, AZ sits on the largest site of spring training homes in MLB, 146 acres. With dimensions modeled after Wrigley Field, the 15,000 capacity stadium should make visiting "North Siders" feel right at home with a brick wall behind home plate, light standards that mimic Wrigley's, and even a roof top deck in left field. Completed just in time for Opening Day, the park had a July 2012 groundbreaking which set a hurried con- struction pace for architecture firm Populous and Hunt Construction Group. For Knight, it felt as if he had been holding his breath on this project, not just through construction, but years beforehand. From 2006 to 2010, the City of Peoria gave Knight his first taste of spring training excitement. Working at the Peoria (AZ) Sports Complex and being very involved in the construction of Rio Vista Community Park prepared him for the magnitude of this project. "The amount of earthwork was very time consuming. Some areas were very sandy, some areas were hard compacted clay soil," he said. Being on the edge of the Salt River complicated the Cubs Park construction timeline. An archaeological survey was completed to preserve any Native history that might be exposed. All of the wildlife on the site had to be relocated, and an attempt was made to nursery the existing trees. These site challenges put a major delay on actual field installation. JANUARY 2013 USGA sand without amendment was imported at a depth of 12 inches for the stadium field and two major league practice fields, and at an 8-inch depth for the four minor league fields and two half fields. The sand layer was placed over a 4-inch pea gravel layer on top of a geotextile fabric, which drains into a Varicore lateral flat pipe drainage system. The system drains to retention basins on site, then evaporates or goes into dry wells, recharging groundwater. Although he jokes that construction is still not complete, Knight said the most difficult aspect of the process early on was that it raised more questions than answers, questions specifically pertaining to his employment. In a strange twist of fate, his partic- ipation in construction weaved in and out, and back again, first as a City of Mesa employee and later as a Cubs employee. As usual, the role of water in a desert spring training complex was critical. John believes his previous experience in the golf in- dustry helped him better grasp watering efficiency for the park as a whole ecosystem. "Other Arizona Spring Training sites are on a horizontal pumping system, we are on a vertical system more like a golf course," he said. The pumping system, an area of shared use between the Cubs and the City of Mesa, is more of a booster type station. The Rain The new Chicago Cub spring facility: ONE GROUNDSKEEPER'S SAGA Facility & Operations | By Clay Hubbs Left: Opening Day at the new stadium. Top Right: Shooting bermuda stolons. Bottom Right: The design team decided to go with traditional Tifway 419 bermudagrass overseeded with perennial ryegrass. Editor's note: The author is director of operations, Stabilizer Solutions, Inc., Phoenix, AZ. Johnathan Knight, CSFM