Re: Email following complaint about Toyota Stadium......very stand up!
Originally Posted by
NDSUmulligan
I suppose I'll take the bait and put my NDSU turfgrass management degree to use....I was at the game in 2012 and 2013, and the surfaces were excellent for those games. I didn't make it this year, so I'm only going off of what I saw on TV, and yes, it looked awful. One thing that is code for turf professionals is that don't be quick to judge, because we've all been there and no two situations are identical. Remember, the playing surface is a living entity and there are a lot of variables that go into maintaining it.
Weather was the main culprit. Even in the south, sodding a field in November and getting it to take a good stand is a tough task. Throw in an ice storm and you get the result they had. As the guy said, 80% was rooted, and it's not like the 20% is going to be in one uniform chunk, it is sporadic throughout the field. In between the hashes was obviously the worst, but that is where the most wear and tear is on any natural grass field. I'm not sure what the weather was like in December in Frisco, but if it was cooler than normal it obviously would have a negative effect. Those asking why the bad sod wasn't replaced---who is to say that if it were replaced the new sod would have taken root? Asking the grass to root in December when bermuda isn't aggressively growing is a pretty tight window to be ready for a championship game the first weekend in January. Can't control mother nature.
The comparisons to the Rose Bowl aren't fair at all. I'm a golf course superintendent, and it's not fair to me if members compare my course to Augusta National during Masters week when my budget is a drop in the bucket compared to the green jacket's. Same thing with the Rose Bowl--the costs to maintain that have to be ridiculous. It seems insane to me to lay and entire new field of 3 inch sod when by all accounts the original field was still in great shape. That new sod that was overlay has to be all ripped out now--you can't just lower the level of your 100 sprinkler heads by 3 inches (they also had to raise the goal posts to match the new field). The actually work and and money that go into this is pretty amazing. So yea, Frisco's budget isn't going to be up to par to be able to take on a job like that. Not to mention that the growing climate in Texas is very much different than that of California. Apples and oranges comparison when it comes to growing grass.
Someone had asked about why they couldn't overseed like southern golf courses do---those courses over seed with ryegrass, which is a fine surface to play golf on, but would not with stand the punishment that a football game would give. The field in Frisco was bermuda. (Side note--rye grass prices are through the roof, because demand is down thus less producers as more and more southern golf courses are going away from overseeding because the costs and effort are very high, while there are other methods of achieving high quality playing surfaces).
That being said, I do question why something wasn't done to correct the ice storm situation. If it was a freak storm and the field couldn't have been covered before hand, it surely could have had the ice removed the day after, not wait a week. I monitor my golf greens and have a threshold for how long they can have ice cover--and if they reach it, I'm getting the ice off come hell or high water. My guess is it had more to do with cooler weather afterwords. As far as it being "dry"--I couldn't tell on TV--was it "dust" flying up or was it the sand base being torn up with the sod being ripped off and flung in the air?
The truth of the matter is, without getting to talk to the grounds superintendent and finding out exactly what went into the field and what maintenance practices were done, there is no way of knowing exactly what went wrong. When it comes to turf, very seldom is there just 1 reason things go poorly, rather it is a whole culminating effective of environmental and budgetary factors that give you an end result that we saw. Again, I won't judge, but I do have technical questions I'd love to have answers to from the grounds crew themselves.
So does this mean you'll help me with my lawn this spring? I'll pay your mobilization charge to come over.
Golden Rules of Bisonville:
Being self-aware is knowing your head is firmly planted up your ass
Never let facts get in the way of a good argument
Surefire Successful Bisonville Conversation Starters: Move to FBS, Scream Yellow, Zipper Merge, Pickleball Championships, Transfer Portal, The Rainforest, Fire Vigen Save Season, Fargodome Expansion, Toxic Locker Rooms, Marlboro Matt, Veer Offense, Whale of a Game, Rainin' Bitches, Frisco Cruiser Bus, BYU Fan Voting, Frisco is biased towards NDSU