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/543149
T his project was initiated to attempt to verify the guideline for the permitting hours of five categories of athletic fields (Table 1). The information in this table was developed with input from municipal sports turf managers based on their experiences from their respective municipalities. Field performance characteristics (percent cover and surface hardness) data were to be collected three times throughout the field season in 2013 and 2014. Information on permitted hours of play and maintenance practices would also be obtained from all municipalities for all of the fields at the end of each field season and the field perfor- mance would be correlated with the permitted hours of play. In addition, at the end of each field season a group of experts would rate the overall conditions of each of the fields and these ratings would also be correlated with the permitted use to deter- mine what the permitted use should be to maintain a soccer field with an acceptable or passable quality rating. This project could provide municipalities and user groups with information on the impact of the hours of permitted play on sports field conditions and enable them to make better decisions to optimize permitted hours without compromising field performance. The aim of this project was also to supply information to modify the guidelines of the permitting use of the different field categories if needed. Sports field managers in three municipalities were contacted in May 2013 and meetings were held to discuss possible fields for use in this project. Soil samples were taken from six to eight fields in each municipality and soil texture was determined. Samples were taken from the sidelines as these areas were less likely to have been modified by topdressing compared to the goal mouths or centre circles. In addition, inventories of irrigation, sub-surface drainage and lights were also taken to categorize each of the fields. This information was combined to accurately categorize each of the fields and then choose fields in the category ranges of 1-5. Once this inventory was completed, it was clear that the three participating municipalities only had category 3-5 fields. Municipalities that participated in this project classified fields according to three classes – Class A, Class B and Class C. This system of classification seems to have more to do with overall facilities at the fields such as lighting, washrooms, fencing, etc. than the field itself, the rootzone and sub-surface drainage. The scope of the project was modified to focus on field catego- ries 3-5 soccer and multi-use fields. Within each of the three municipalities, the goal then was to obtain two fields of each of the three categories. In total, twelve fields from three munici- palities were included in this project. During the initial visit, 4x4 m plots were flagged in six areas of the soccer fields, two each in the goal mouths, centre circle and side lines. At each visit percent species cover (individual turf species, individual weeds species and bare) was measured using four randomized point quadrant drops. All fields were visited three times in each season. In 2013, the field visits did not begin until mid-June and early August. This was because of the time it took to find cooperating municipalities, take soil samples and have them analyzed. Site visits in 2014 began in late May and better reflect the field performance in early, mid and late season. Sports turf managers in each municipality were asked to supply information on the following for each of the fields in the project: fertility (total N); cultivation frequency; topdressing frequency; and overseeding (frequency and species). Permitting departments in each municipality were asked to supply infor- mation on the total permitted hours for each field for the season as part of this project. 14 SportsTurf | August 2015 www.sportsturfonline.com STUDY: FIELD BENCHMARKING AND PERMITTING HOURS FIELD SCIENCE ■ BY PAM CHARBONNEAU AND EMILY HARTWIG Design Requirements Category 1 Category 2 Category 3 Category 4 Category 5 Soil (% silt plus clay) <8.0 <25 25-35 36-45 All soils Sub-surface Yes Yes Yes Yes No drainage system Irrigation Yes Yes Optional Optional No Lights Yes Yes Optional Optional No Table 1. A summary of the design requirements for the five field categories* *From Sheard, 2012.