Will the Pats New Field be finshed on time or Will They move the Game to BC?

[Tunescribe]

Tune, I should say that if I were doing the install, I wouldn't be comfortable with the timeframe. They are taking shortcuts with the rolling and you just can't replicate normal weathering and settling but these guys (ostensibly) know what they are doing. There should still be crowning to promote runoff to the sides, but the surface will still allow water to percolate through to the subsurface drainage as well.

The cost is relatively low, but much of the grading and sitework had already been done. Plus there probably is some sort of discounted price just to get Gillette into their portfolio. The H.S. in our town converted their soccer/football field to Field Turf two years ago (another sore subject but every corner was cut on construction and the soil structure was unsalvagable and artificial was probably the best recourse) and the bill was just over a million by the time they got done stripping the desk-sized boulders and pieces of pavement out of the supposed screened soil.

I've done artificial putting green installations which is a similar process, but that by no means makes me any more of an expert of FieldTurf than the next guy. I did watch the H.S. install and it was quite a process that does require some precision.

This sort of makes me wonder if they'll re-do it during the offseason.

 

[CTPatsFan]

This sort of makes me wonder if they'll re-do it during the offseason.

Tune, this little tidbit from an article on Patriots.com was a little less than confidence-inspiring:

The accelerated installation process has no prior precedent, however the FieldTurf Company and the Patriots are confident it will be done in time.

 

[denverpatsfan]

Thanks for the link and insight into this project. Crossing my fingers that this is the little boost that Brady & Company need to get their confidence, timing etc. back on track.

 

[captain stone]

Thanks for the link and insight into this project. Crossing my fingers that this is the little boost that Brady & Company need to get their confidence, timing etc. back on track.

Hear, hear. I enjoy CTPF's objective, expert analysis.

2 weeks to complete a 4-week project...sounds like something the Sullivans would have tried to pull. Except that they would have been torn a new one, from Eastport to Block Island.

I, too, am crossing my fingers...that Brady's or Maroney's knees don't go Robert Edwards on them, due to a defective panel somewhere that wasn't given enough time to take hold.

 

[VJCPatriot]

What is up with the field this year? It seems I never heard of problems with it till this year. We have a PROFESSIONAL football team. I would expect the field to be in PLAYABLE condition! There should be ZERO excuses!

 

[RayClay]

Tune, I should say that if I were doing the install, I wouldn't be comfortable with the timeframe. They are taking shortcuts with the rolling and you just can't replicate normal weathering and settling but these guys (ostensibly) know what they are doing. There should still be crowning to promote runoff to the sides, but the surface will still allow water to percolate through to the subsurface drainage as well.

The cost is relatively low, but much of the grading and sitework had already been done. Plus there probably is some sort of discounted price just to get Gillette into their portfolio. The H.S. in our town converted their soccer/football field to Field Turf two years ago (another sore subject but every corner was cut on construction and the soil structure was unsalvagable and artificial was probably the best recourse) and the bill was just over a million by the time they got done stripping the desk-sized boulders and pieces of pavement out of the supposed screened soil.

I've done artificial putting green installations which is a similar process, but that by no means makes me any more of an expert of FieldTurf than the next guy. I did watch the H.S. install and it was quite a process that does require some precision.

It does if the next guy is me.

 

[Tunescribe]

What is up with the field this year? It seems I never heard of problems with it till this year. We have a PROFESSIONAL football team. I would expect the field to be in PLAYABLE condition! There should be ZERO excuses!

I'll agree with that. It seems the bottom line is someone wasn't minding the shop.

 

[ilduce06410]

Will It Cure in Time?

Its pretty much standard for a concrete slab to be left alone for 28 days to cure. I can't imagine that they just roll that space-turf out over dirt.

excellent question.
1. i am not sure the players are unwilling to play on that field. it's gotta be the softest field they will ever see. This Looks To Me to Be A TV Thing. it's to be expected, but the dominance of TV remains notable.
2. in the last year of Sullivan/Foxboro stadium, the NFL itself paid for the resodding of the turf, perhaps for thr Tuck Rule game. the krafts don't use jack $--t of their own money if they can get somebody else to pay it.
3. there's not even close to enough time to let concrete cure.
4. they cant just dump the concrete, wait a day, and roll out the padding/field.
5. they may roll out padding and turf over dirt/sand, and deal with the mess later. the danged NFL will pay, justto honor some clause in the TV contract. concrete is out of the questiion.

 

[Gumby]

Il Duce,

you either didn't read earlier posts or didn't see the articles in newspapers.

there is NO concrete involved in this.


The field turf has some kind of earth-composite fill base; then they layout the artificial grass blanket and secure it to the edges of the field.

(I am going to make up some dimensions so you get the idea of the rest but understand these are not real figures - layman's understanding)

The blades of grass are like 8 inches high and they then add composite shredded rubber fill (in an earth brown tone in our case - older installs mostly used black) that settles between the grass blades for like 5-6 inches. That leaves a 2" blade sticking up out of something that appears to act like dirt except with a bit more bounce.

What tune and others above were complaining may happen:

is that either the base layer or the composite fill layers may not settle correctly because of the too short install or machine rolling and therefore may cause future issues with either unlevel field or poor drainage.

 

[sdaniels7114]

Yeah the link made it pretty clear that concrete is not a part of the process which is surprising unless you think in terms of technology always simplifying things and how much better customers would feel about not playing over concrete even if it had three feet of the softest padding in the world over it.

The link did mention that silica sand was used in the filling process. I find that a bit ironic considering it was sand being added to the natural field that got us into this mess in the first place.

 

[DaBruinz]

Seeing as it's the bears that are coming in, maybe they should lay concrete down over the turf, instead.

Any adverse weather, particularly snow, and it wont be ready in time.

They might, of course, move it to Monday night to buy an extra day's time.

They did that with the Dolphins/Chargers , either last year, or the year before, and moved it to Phoenix at the last minute....on Monday Night.

I had brought this up in an earlier thread....because there really isnt much time to get that field in 100% condition that quickly.

Just an FYI, It was in 2002 that they moved the SD/Miami game to AZ. The reason being that there were fires threatening the area of SD where the Stadium is. Also,the SD airport was shut down because of all the smoke so the Phins couldn't fly in anyways. I know this because I was living in SD at the time.

 

[captain stone]

Just an FYI, It was in 2002 that they moved the SD/Miami game to AZ. The reason being that there were fires threatening the area of SD where the Stadium is. Also,the SD airport was shut down because of all the smoke so the Phins couldn't fly in anyways. I know this because I was living in SD at the time.

Just curious, but why would you want to leave SD? I esp. dug Black's Beach; but that was nearly 20 years ago, when I was a USMC welterweight. Now, as a Civilian cruiserweight, I probably couldn't even make it down the hill without falling.

 

[PatsFan24]

i dont think i like this idea of putting in a field turf or whatever it is. the patriots have always had grass. this is disapointing

 

[Pats726]

BTW....Felger had on the Pres of Field turf I believe Wed.. I missed it because I was out of range of the rinky dink station...would have liked to have heard what he had to say on this issue. He kept making a point of too quick too soon..and I THHINK somewhere along the lines that snow would make it VERY hard..but other than that????
As for the grass...there are conditions in various parts of the country that make it harder or easier in general..but there are also specific conditions regarding sites that may make it totally impossible for it to happen no matter who tends to it or how much money is involved. I tend to think the Krafts tried their best and realize for whatever reqason..it is impossible to do. That game Sunday was a total embarrassment playing wise...mud muck..POOR game conditions. HAD to be done..
I know Felger also said he's a grass person and thinks anything else is bogus..myabe he should pay to put the stadium in a place where grass is possible??

 

[CopenhagenPatsfan]

Here is a link to some videos about FieldTurf

http://www.fieldturf.com/product/techInfo.cfm

 

[Tunescribe]

BTW....Felger had on the Pres of Field turf I believe Wed.. I missed it because I was out of range of the rinky dink station...would have liked to have heard what he had to say on this issue. He kept making a point of too quick too soon..and I THHINK somewhere along the lines that snow would make it VERY hard..but other than that????
As for the grass...there are conditions in various parts of the country that make it harder or easier in general..but there are also specific conditions regarding sites that may make it totally impossible for it to happen no matter who tends to it or how much money is involved. I tend to think the Krafts tried their best and realize for whatever reqason..it is impossible to do. That game Sunday was a total embarrassment playing wise...mud muck..POOR game conditions. HAD to be done..
I know Felger also said he's a grass person and thinks anything else is bogus..myabe he should pay to put the stadium in a place where grass is possible??

Felger had the president of FieldTurf on last night. I felt 100 percent better about the decision after hearing him talk about it. I got the feeling that the FieldTurf people see the Gillette rush-job as huge PR for their company, so they're pulling out all the stops to show what they can do. Among his points:

* Installation is going perfectly, and rain during the week actually aided the process in helping the materials settle.

* The field should be finished by this coming Thursday.

* They start laying the grass rug today.

* Medical studies show that injuries are fewer and less severe on FieldTurf compared to natural grass, especially concussions.

* The Meadowlands field was replaced because maintenance crews screwed up painting the field during changeovers from Jets to Giants to soccer, etc. Instead of removing the old paint before putting on new markings, they just painted over the old markings. That eventually resulted in many layers of hardened paint making the field hard. He said the Gillette people will be instructed not to do that.

 

[Mythjp]

Re: Will the Pats New Field be finished on time or Will They move the Game to BC?

I help coach a team that plays about half their games on this stuff.
The soil is packed in the same manner as has been pointed out here already.
Then a 1"thick layer of a firm stiro like material that is sealed in a black vinyl like coating ,looks like a big rubber mat that are used in Greco wrestling. They then will put a 6" thick layer of black pellets that get compacted. Finally it gets the top layers of the stuff that looks a lot like thick Kentucky Blue Grass embedded in yet another layer of pellets. The stuff is great dry like running on a real nice indoor track. When wet you need to have the narrow 3/4" cleats to keep good footing. But the little black pellets will stick to every thing when wet. We always have extra water bottles on hand to wash the stuff off the guys hands and face.

 

[captain stone]

BTW....Felger had on the Pres of Field turf I believe Wed.. I missed it because I was out of range of the rinky dink station...would have liked to have heard what he had to say on this issue. He kept making a point of too quick too soon..and I THHINK somewhere along the lines that snow would make it VERY hard..but other than that????
As for the grass...there are conditions in various parts of the country that make it harder or easier in general..but there are also specific conditions regarding sites that may make it totally impossible for it to happen no matter who tends to it or how much money is involved. I tend to think the Krafts tried their best and realize for whatever reqason..it is impossible to do. That game Sunday was a total embarrassment playing wise...mud muck..POOR game conditions. HAD to be done..
I know Felger also said he's a grass person and thinks anything else is bogus..myabe he should pay to put the stadium in a place where grass is possible??

Grass probably was possible there.

The patriots had one of the best grass men working for them, but BB had him fired.

Add that to the fact that the Krafts had concerts, etc. during the spring and summer, and grass didn't have a chance. And I always want to give grass a chance, man.

 

[Tunescribe]

And I always want to give grass a chance, man.

All you are saying ... is give grass a chance ...

Shouldn't your handle be Captain "Stoned"?

 

[captain stone]

All you are saying ... is give grass a chance ...

Shouldn't your handle be Captain "Stoned"?

I wish I were, but Mother Nature is hard to find here at the Sweetest Place on Earth.
Besides, my handle derives from a SNL skit during Reagan's 2nd term. After Robert Bork withdrew as nominee for the Supreme Court, the next nominee, it was discovered, had smoked pot while a professor at Harvard. Jon Lovitz, playing the judge, invites some students to his pad, and they proceed to party. One of the students says: "Hey, Professor (I forget the name), ..."; Lovitz intercedes, saying: "Please, call me Captain Stone..."
Needless to say, that judge also withdrew his name from consideration. Too bad.