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
S uper Bowl Sunday, February 1, 2015 put the eyes of the world on the football field of the University of Phoenix in Glendale, AZ, again. Super Bowl XLIX, 2015, was a follow up to Super Bowl XLII played at the same site in 2008. Evergreen Turf, Inc., Chandler, AZ, played a key role in the preparation of both events, having become the masters of turnaround in sodding that field. The story starts before the stadium opened in 2006. The entire movable field system was a new concept and quite a feat of engineering. Evergreen Turf col- laborated on the development of the original turf technology still in use today. The soil profile is USGA spec sand com- bined with StaLok synthetic fibers that help the grass roots bind tightly together. The irrigation system uses Hunter I-40s and I-25s. The base turf is Tifway 419 bermu- dagrass known for its resilience to wear and tear as well as fluctuations in tem- perature. We overseed it with grasses selected through our own seed trials: Paragon and Pangea perennial ryegrasses from Turf Merchants, Inc. and Jump Start bluegrass from Pure-Seed Testing, Inc. We chose those varieties for their good wear tolerance, fine texture and dark color. We overseed at the rate of 100 pounds of bluegrass to 600 pounds of perennial rye per acre. That density ratio of the bluegrass to the rye improves the footing a bit for the players. The typical height of cut is one-half inch. The relationship between Evergreen Turf and the Arizona Cardinals, started during the field design and construc- tion, has continued strong over the years as well. Few sod growers have the opportunity to work with a professional sports team. We know that we're blessed, because for us, it's a true partnership. We now make the decisions together on how to maintain the stadium field and the field we grow specifically for the Cardinals on the sod farm—an exact match of same turfgrasses grown on the same USGA spec sand with the StaLok fibers mixed in at the same ratio. The stadium field sod starts its work in August, when the Cardinals' training camp begins. In 2014, that consisted of 18 SportsTurf | August 2015 www.sportsturfonline.com MASTERING THE FIELD TURNAROUND FIELD SCIENCE ■ BY JIMMY FOX Editor's note: Jimmy Fox and Jeff Nettleton are co-owners of Evergreen Turf, Inc., Chandler, AZ. Fox is a member of the Sports Turf Managers Association. Reverse rolling and removing a perfectly good Fiesta Bowl field, with only two games played on it.