John Mascaro is President of Turf-Tec International
When I drove by this area between Everbank Field and the baseball grounds at
Jacksonville I slammed on my breaks and got out to take this photo. At first I
thought the circles were rings created by improper pressure in the irrigation sys-
tem. However, as I looked the areas over in more detail, I noticed that the green
grass and brown areas were in different shapes and patterns, plus there were
no irrigation heads located in the green centers. I had seen this before and knew
it was caused by wear, however what happened here? I asked the Sports Turf
Manager Mark Clay, what caused this and he said, "Oh that was the fair." As it
turned out, once a year the Greater Jacksonville Agriculture Fair comes to the
stadium parking lot of Everbank Field and sets up shop. Some of the small rides,
ticket booths and kid's rides are set up on these St. Augustine grass areas caus-
ing these unusual wear patterns. The green area in the foreground is where a
ticket booth stood and the brown wear area around it is where the people tram-
pled the grass. The circle right behind this is a child's pony ride. Since the areas
were pretty well destroyed after the event the damaged areas were stripped and
re-sodded and the fair paid for the renovated areas and sod.
Thanks to Mark Clay, Sports Turf Manager at Everbank Field in Jacksonville,
for allowing me to take this photograph.
John Mascaro's Photo Quiz Answers from page 17
www.stma.org April 2015 | SportsTurf 21
If you would like to submit a photograph for John Mascaro's Photo Quiz please send it to John Mascaro, 1471 Capital Circle NW, Ste # 13, Tallahassee,
FL 32303 call (850) 580-4026 or email to john@turf-tec.com. If your photograph is selected, you will receive full credit. All photos submitted will
become property of SportsTurf magazine and the Sports Turf Managers Association.
