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/338693
30 SportsTurf | July 2014 www.sportsturfonline.com Facility & Operations | By Ian McCormick A synthetic turf field is an ideal playing surface for a wide variety of sports and activities—when it's not covered with a foot of snow. Fortunately, there's a build- ing system that can allow for a synthetic turf field to be used during all seasons. Air-supported structures are lower cost alternatives to traditional buildings, particularly for facilities that require large, open, clear span interior space. But the most unique feature of these structures is their ability to be taken down and put back up seasonally. Many domes have been installed to cover sports facilities for the winter months and are taken down to allow for outdoor activity in the summer months. Of course, a dome can also be constructed for use as a permanent, year round facility. With the exponential growth in participants in soccer and other field sports and the evolution of the synthetic turf industry, the past decade has seen a significant increase in the number of installations of synthetic turf fields with no signs of slowing down anytime soon. Unfortunately many of these fields are in areas that are affected by the cold and snow that winter weather brings, rendering them unplayable for several months every year. So, what's the solution for a field that can't be used during the winter months? Well, you can "bubble" it. When air structures were first introduced to North America in the early seventies by industry pioneer Ralph Farley, covering a single tennis court for the winter season was an ambitious endeavor. The technol- ogy had already been established in Sweden, and Farley saw an opportunity to make use of these "bubbles" in areas in Canada and the United States where long, cold winters made it impossible for outdoor surfaces such as tennis courts to be played on after the warm season was over. So he teamed up with a tennis club in Toronto and imported one of these fabric structures from Sweden, specifically patterned and manufactured to cover one tennis court. The fabric membrane was attached to an anchoring system around the perimeter, an electric inflation fan pressurized the interior of the bubble, and that winter people played tennis on the same court that they enjoyed their favorite pastime on in the sum- mer months. The dome was deflated the next spring, Air-SuppOrTed STrucTureS And SynTheTic TurF FieldS Two full field seasonal domes (Downsview Park, Toronto, ON). All photos by Ian McCormick, The Farley Group Editor's note: Ian McCormick is business development manager, The Farley Group.