Spartan Stadium To Undergo Turf Replacement This Summer
6/29/2011 12:00:00 AM | Football
June 29, 2011
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EAST LANSING, Mich. - Spartan Stadium is most known for its seats being packed with screaming Michigan State football fans. But on June 26, 2011, its seats were packed with more than 65,000 screaming U2 fans.
The world renowned rock band U2, which has played in some of the finest venues in some of the most highly recognized cities in the world, including Athens, Rome, Moscow, Chicago and New York, performed its critically acclaimed "360 Tour" last Sunday at the home of Michigan State football.
The concert was announced in October 2009 and originally scheduled for June 30, 2010, but was postponed to June 26 of this year due to Bono's back surgery last summer.
Research and preparations for the event began immediately following the announcement of the concert in 2009, including everything from parking, stage setup, staffing, facility alterations, and security; however, perhaps the biggest challenge of all was for the athletic grounds staff, which had to prepare for a complete replacement of the football field following the concert.
"The replacement of the Spartan Stadium field was due to the hosting of U2," said Michigan State Deputy Athletics Director Greg Ianni, who oversees all of MSU's athletic facilities. "The project presents a great challenge due to the time of the year in which we are forced to install the new sod. Fortunately, we have one of the best turf managers in the country in Amy Fouty. I am confident she will meet the challenges this project presents and provide us with a quality playing surface for Spartan football in the fall."
"As soon as we were aware of the possibility of U2 coming to the Spartan Stadium, we began researching the U2 tour and what we would need to do to have a quality playing surface," said Michigan State Sports Turf Manager Amy Fouty. "We realized early that keeping the field alive would be virtually impossible due to the 10-day stage set up and tear down in the heat of the summer. U2 has played at many football venues on this tour across the United States and not one was able to maintain their facility without re-establishing or sodding the playing surface following their performance."
Michigan State University is well known for being the first land grant institution in the country, and it features a strong agricultural tradition, including an outstanding turfgrass management program. Replacing one of the finest natural grass playing surfaces in college football had to be diligently researched and intensely prepared for following the concert on June 26 and for the next eight weeks prior to the 2011 football season on Sept. 2.
"The U2 concert was scheduled for a year ago, and at the time the contract was finalized, we had to move pretty quickly to work on field replacement," Ianni said. "From the athletics department standpoint, that was our biggest concern. The current field that we have in has been in for nine years, was voted the best field in the country three years ago, and probably could receive that award every year. Last year it probably played as well as it could play. So we were a little concerned from the get go about replacement, and how we were going to replace it."
"Amy went to work, got with our turf people here on campus, specifically Dr. Trey Rogers and Dr. Jim Crum, who were the designers of our field originally. She asked them how it was going to impact us, how are we going to fare if we hosted the concert, and what kinds of challenges would be in front of us."
"We explored all options: removing the field; growing another field on campus like we did originally in 2002; and also installing sod," said Fouty. "Due to the size of the stage and set up, removing the modular field was not an option. The discussions turned to re-establishment or sod. Due to a number of factors, including our short establishment window, weather unpredictability, we felt our best option would be to install thick cut sod."
Following Sunday's concert, the cleanup efforts are currently in progress in the stadium to remove the stage and the aluminum cover that went across the entire field.
Fouty will begin the renovation process by stripping the field, taking the top 2.5-3 inches of turf and soil off, and re-grade the surface. Ianni said some areas of the field have slightly dropped since the last installation, and those areas will be leveled. Following that process, Fouty will install the new sod, which has been growing in Colorado at Graff's Turf Farms since April 2010. U2's contract included covering all costs for replacing the field, which is approximately $253,000.
 An aluminum cover went across the entire field at Spartan Stadium to set up the stage for the U2 show.  | |
"There have been a lot of questions about why we decided to go out of state to grow the grass," said Ianni. "Dr. Jim Crum and Dr. Trey Rogers, who supervised the blending of the engineered soil for this current field, did a great deal of study as to what kind of soil structure we should grow this new field in. And it is really important, particularly when you have such a short transition between the installation and the growing season, that the soil material matches what we have in the stadium. Of any place in the country, Graff's Turf Farms in Colorado most closely matched that soil profile. There wasn't any place in Michigan that matched the soil profile. So for Amy to manage this grass we had to give ourselves as much of a chance as we possibly could; that is the reason we purchased the sod from Colorado. There are a lot of fine turf growers in the state of Michigan. It had nothing to do with their ability to grow grass, it had everything to do with the soil profile that matched what we have in the stadium."
Spartan Stadium, which officially opened in 1923 at its current location, featured a natural grass playing surface until artificial turf was installed in 1969. The stadium returned to natural grass for the 2002 season. In 2005, the natural grass playing surface in Spartan Stadium earned Field of the Year honors from the Sports Turf Managers Association (STMA).
Graff's Turf Farms, based in Ft. Morgan, Colo., has sodded several of the top sporting venues in the country, including Wrigley Field and Soldier Field in Chicago, Coors Field and Invesco Field in Denver, Target Field in Minneapolis and Busch Stadium in St. Louis.
Michigan State opens the 2011 football season at Spartan Stadium on Friday, Sept. 2 vs. Youngstown State.
"In the upcoming weeks, we will detail aspects of this process and the time and efforts of many who have participated in the process," said Fouty. "I realize that the turf at Spartan Stadium has become so much more than just grass."
For updates on the Spartan Stadium turf replacement project, visit the MSU Sports Turf Facebook page here.