Artificial Turf-- Getting Rid of Its Bugs

By Freda Grones

Artificial turf in an indoor sports facility—what a great idea! Or, that's what just about everyone thought some 30 years ago when grass impersonators first came into use.

But we soon learned that this great idea came loaded with its own, peculiar bugs.

The bugs ranged from frequent, often serious, injuries to pesky, often costly, maintenance. Players and coaches discovered that artificial turf produced a hard, abrasive surface with an unnatural traction. Facility managers found that because artificial turf expanded and contracted, it tore more easily than people had anticipated—especially with constant, rugged use.

Now, at least two companies say they have an artificial turf free of these pesky bugs.

Dan Daluise is vice president of project development at SafTurf Intl., Inc., in Canton, Ohio, which manufactures SprinTurf. Daluise says, "SprinTurf looks like, feels like and plays like natural turf. If you walked on it and didn't know you were walking on an artificial surface, you would think you were walking on grass."

According to Daluise, SprinTurf eliminated the bug causing hardness by using an infill of rubber, a 100% resilient material. They got rid of the abrasion bug by excluding the use of sand in their product. And SprinTurf developed an installation process not requiring a synthetic base. These changes eliminated another, huge bug: the frequent-tear-and-constant-maintenance-bug.

Bob Somerville is manager and director of operations at the Pepsi Indoor Soccer Center in Asheville, North Carolina. He and eight other co-owners of this facility, located at a resort hotel, had SprinTurf installed in October 1998 on two playing surfaces, each measuring 115' x 80'.

Somerville says, "We did a lot of research. We looked at everything. This is the closest thing we've ever found to grass. It's absolutely beautiful and it stands up beautifully.

"We wanted to play indoors, to stay out of the elements," Somerville continues. "But we wanted a natural playing surface. Soccer is not meant to be played on asphalt. On SprinTurf, the ball reacts as it should—as it would on grass."

To create this soccer center, the owners renovated an existing indoor tennis facility. SprinTurf was installed in less than a week right over the asphalt surface already there.

During the busy winter season, November through March, some 250 teams, ranging in age from 5 to 40 played on the SprinTurf, with no injuries that could be attributed to the surface.

FieldTurf, a division of SynTenniCo Inc. in Montreal, Canada, also manufactures an artificial turf and is equally proud of its debugging efforts.

Steve Goldberg, FieldTurf's media consultant and a soccer player, says that FieldTurf is different and better than other synthetic playing surfaces "for the most obvious reason: it emulates real grass."

Goldberg adds, "Other products are sand filled, so they tend to pack—especially over time and use—and that creates a hard surface. That is not a good thing."

FieldTurf is made from a polyethylene and polypropylene blend, treated and tufted into a unique, porous surface backing. For infill, FieldTurf uses graded silica sand and ground rubber, which provides a non-compactible, resilient, natural, earth feel. It boasts a life expectancy of 15 to 25 years with continual use and minimum maintenance.

Jack Browning manages the indoor facility used by the East Tennessee Soccer Association in Johnson City, Tennessee. Its athletes, including both youngsters and adults, have chased soccer balls on FieldTurf since December 1996.

Browning says, "We love it—the FieldTurf is probably the best thing that we could have done cause our goal is to play outdoor soccer inside. We looked at other artificial turfs. They just don't have the resilience for the ball to play like it would outdoors, on grass. Lots of people playing here equate it to playing on a manicured, real grass field."

According to Browning, maintenance is minimal. He says, "We use a leaf rake to clean it every two to three months. The leaf rake picks up all the trash. You'd be surprised at what gets left on a field!"

Browning adds that since the FieldTurf's installation they have only had to spread about ten bags of sand and ten bags of rubber, using a process similar to broadcasting fertilizer over a lawn. "That's done to replace the fill that's just naturally displaced with use."

In discussions that David South had with SprinTurf and FieldTurf, both gave rough estimates of $500,000 for the installation of a high quality, artificial turf as an indoor football field of 360'x160'. For more information, each of these artificial turf manufacturers maintains a website and a toll free telephone number. SprinTurf is at www.artificialturf.com or 877-686-8873. FieldTurf is at www.fieldturf.com or 800-724-2969.

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