Joe Robbie Stadium as It was being prepared for the last game of the Dolphin's 1988 season. Joe Robbie Stadium Prepares For Super Bowl XXIII ifty-four million households are ex- With the help of HOK Sports Facilities Bowl replaced with a Prescription Athletic pected to have their television sets Group in Kansas City, MO, Robbie satisfied Turf (PAT) system. Ftuned to Super Bowl XXIII this month. the NFL committee that he could indeed When it was time to decide what type of The contest for the National Football finance his dream. He also realized that his surface the new stadium would have, Rob- League Championship has become one of plan would be more likely to succeed with bie again chose PAT.HOK's Dennis Wellner the premier televised sporting events in the a commitment from the NFL for the 1989 recalls, "Joe Robbie wanted natural turf world. And, perhaps the first time, it is being Super Bowl. from day one. He was very realistic about held in a stadium that was designed in large The plan hinged on preselling tickets and the limitations of a natural field, but he part as a multi-million-dollar stage for the long-term leases for more than 200 insisted on it anyway:' Super Bowl - Joe Robbie Stadium in skyboxes and 10,000 club seats, far more The field was also the largest PATsystem Miami, FL. than had ever been built in a stadium at the time. It was proportioned by HOK to The NFL selected the stadium as the site before. meet international soccer standards, .in for Super Bowl XXIII when it was nothing To win the confidence and support of addition to football and baseball (with some more than a set of architectural drawings. Miami fans and the NFL, Robbie had to alterations). As a result of its size, the Joe Robbie, owner-of the Miami Dolphins, build a better sports facility than the famous stadium is almost certain to be used in 1994 wasn't even certain he could finance con- Orange Bowl. In addition to providing park- during the World Cup Soccer tournaments. struction of the $120-million stadium when ing, comfortable seating, and convenient Robbie was a tremendous influence in con- he unrolled the blueprints on the confer- concessions for 73,000 spectators, he vincing FIFA, the international soccer feder- ence table at NFL headquarters in New needed the ultimate field for both the ation, to select the United States for the York to show the Super Bowl Site Selection players and the extremely important televi- games. Committee. sion audience. Cancellations are a definite threat in He wanted to own the stadium, building For a long time, Robbie had shown spe- Miami, where tropical storms are common- it without financing from state or local cial interest in the field conditions at the place and the annual rainfall averages 60 governments. To obtain private financing, Orange Bowl, home for his Dolphins from inches. The patented sand-based field with something few sports authorities believed 1965 to 1987. He has been a fan of natural suction drainage can remove four inches of was possible at the time, Robbie developed turf since 1976, when he was instrumental water from a field in one hour. The plastic a unique plan. in having the artificial turf in the Orange continued on page 30 January, 1989 29 Joe Robbie Stadium the barrier. The pattern of the pipe was tion properly, a fou r-inch crown was continued from page 29 designed to drain and subirrigate the field installed so water could run off tarps. The liner below the field also prevents salty sub- in three sections, one for the center of the NFL requires that all stadiums have a tarp surface water from intruding and allows the field and two for the sidelines. to cover the field during a pre-game or field to be subirrigated. The drain lines feed into "wet Pits" game-time rain. Salt-water intrusion is a distinct possibil- located behind both goalposts. Under nor- To provide additional moisture retention ity, because the stadium is located on the mal circumstances, the pits serve as large and to improve the cation (chemical) Snake Canal in Davie, FL, a few thousand collector drains, removing excess water by exchange capacity of the sand, calcined feet from the ocean. The water table is just gravity. When rainfall exceeds normal clay was mixed into the top three inches. one foot beneath the surface. To stabilize drainage, suction created by two pumps Ten pairs of Aquamiser moisture sensors the foundation of the stadium, 500 cubic underneath the stands is utilized to pull were then imbedded at two depths in the yards of fill were brought in to raise the water through the root zone. To subirrigate, sand, two inches and four inches. The sen- stadium ten feet. The grass parking lots, the process is reversed by adding water to sors were connected with wire to a con- however, remain at the original elevation. the wet pits. troller next to the irrigation controller. The Southern Turf Nurseries (STN) of Nor- At the same time, STN installed the risers and sprinkler heads were installed cross, GA, is the licensed PAT installer in mains and laterals for the surface irrigation and the sand was irrigated before the sod the Southeast. As the stadium took shape, system. It consists of 44 Toro 640 heads was shipped from the farm to the stadium. STN was custom-growing three acres of Tif- placed in a square pattern 64 feet apart. At By May 1, all 128,000 square feet of sod way 419 bermudagrass on the sandy soil at Robbie's request, only 12 heads are located was installed and rolled. Both surface irriga- its sod farm in Lake Wales, FL. "We had soil in bounds. tion and subirrigation were activated to samples from the farm tested," recalls The other important ingredient of the encourage the sod to send down deep STN's Bill Wilson. "The lab said the sam- drainage system is the foot of sand that roots. The moisture-control system was set ples were the closest thing to a greens mix makes up the root zone of the field. Dr. Wil· between 30 and 50 percent. Frequent soil they had ever seen:' Iiam Daniel, inventor of the PAT system, tests were taken so that nutrient levels Construction of the field took place made sand part of the design for two could be kept at moderate-to-high levels at between February and May 1987. The Dol- primary reasons: It does not compact and all times. Granular slow-release fertilizers phins' first exhibition game at Robbie it drains better than soils containing clay or 'are the backbone of the nutrition program. Stadium was scheduled for August, so the silt. He selected fine to medium-sized sand Controversy seems to surround every sod had to knit in roughly two months. because it retains moisture better than new facility in professional sports, espe- STN began to prepare the flat subgrade larger sands. cially when it is hosting the Super Bowl. Not on February 9. No slope in the subgrade is For Joe Robbie Stadium, STN shipped in only does Joe Robbie take an interest in the required for the PATsystem to operate. The 8,000 cubic yards of properly sized sand playing field, the Dolphins' Don Shula is plastic barrier was then placed on top of the and carefully spread it over the drainage perhaps one of the most vocal coaches in subgrade. Three miles of wrapped, perfo- and irrigation lines. Although the system the NFL about field conditions. He listens rated drainpipe were positioned on top of does not require a sloped surface to func- continued on page 32 Mascaro's invention, the Vertislicer, was used to break through a subsurface layer and to encourage root growth. 30 sportsTURF Joe Robbie Stadium method of problem solving that Kuykendahl the challenge of managing a professional continued from page 30 could not match. When Kuykendahl had an field," Morris admits. "At PGA National I got carefully to his players' comments about opportunity to leave, he took it. used to the pressure of major events." field conditions and doesn't hesitate to call The Dolphins asked Mascaro to help Pressure is what he likes and pressure is in the groundskeeper for his response. He them find a new groundskeeper. He learned what he got - arriving at the stadium on a had done this regularly with Dale Sandin at that a golf course superintendent, who had Wednesday in early October, with a Dol- the Orange Bowl and continued the prac- applied for the job when the stadium was phins game on Sunday. "Tom had th~ tice with Dean Kuykendahl at Joe Robbie built, was still very interested. stadium turf in good condition, so I focused Stadium. Gary Morris, superintendent at Emerald my efforts on getting the field ready for the Try as he might, Kuykendahl could not Hills Golf Course in Hollywood, FL, was game, learning how to paint the lines and satisfy Shula or completely master the PAT very familiar with the needs of hybrid ber- emblems," Morris says. system. mudagrass in sand root zones. The bulk of Much of his time the first week was spent He'd solved early problems with thatch his learning experience was gained as at the Dolphins' training center in Hialeah, and loose turf through a topdressing pro- assistant superintendent at PGA National in FL, working on the practice fields and get- gram. He grasped the delicate process of Palm Beach Gardens, FL.