TORONTO FANS RALLY to withstand all the nonsporting events." Harold Starkman, director of public re- Robert Hunter, vice president of opera- lations for the Blue Jays, explains the ar- FOR NATURAL TURF tion for Stadium Corp., attended the recent tificial field at Exhibition Stadium had When Stadium Corporation of Ontario Sports Turf Managers Association Annual problems with grading when the field was Ltd., decided to build a $250 million dome Conference in Phoenix, AZ., to get opinions installed in 1976. "The field was graded for stadium to replace Exhibition Stadium, the from turf managers of stadiums across the football with water running toward the in- Toronto Blue Jays assumed it would have U.S. and Europe. He listened to ideas about field," explained Starkman. "When extra artificial turf. Exhibition Stadium has Astroturf soil heaters, subirrigation, field covers and pipes were added to keep the water out of and they assumed an indoor stadium the minimum lighting needs of sports grass- the infield, they were installed too high caus- couldn't support natural grass. But, the fans es. He has also been thoroughly briefed on ing a bump near short-stop. Much of the and the local press had another idea. Astroturf, Omni-Turf and other artificial sur- criticism of the Astroturf is related to the After all, the dome would take the fans faces. Between now and the fall of 1988, odd bounces we get at short-stop." out of the cold gusting winds off Lake Erie Hunter and Stadium Corp. have to choose Construction has begun and the Toron- into a warm, new facility. What more could between natural and artificial turf. to Dome will open by the 1989 baseball sea- they want? If you asked Rose Mary Bran- "The possibilities are exciting," says Laurel son. The province and a consortium of 15 son, president of the 3,500-member Blue Meade, executive vice president of PAT. corporate sponsors paying $5 million each Jays Fan Club, she would say natural grass. "We've discovered important research on are picking up the tab until event fees start To prove her point, Branson enlisted the the ability of natural turf to grow under limited coming in. Managers of dome projects support of The Toronto Star daily newspaper sunlight by Dr. James Beard of Texas A&M, across the country are watching Toronto and organized a "Grass Love In" and a "Pub- Dr. Don White of the University of Minnesota closely to see which way it will go. It may lic Forum on Natural Turf." and Dr. Robert Carrow of the University of be a year before a final decision is made, Star sportswriter John Robertson has Georgia. If the dome is open 50 percent of but that decision will carry a lot of weight been raising all kinds of possible ways to the time, there should be no problem. We for proponents of both natural and artificial grow natural turf indoors while Branson has also have a concept for a center-pivot type surfaces. filled the fan club's newsletter with stories of travelling light system that could be stored about Prescription Athletic Turf (PAT) and underneath the stands. Bulbs, suspended a mobile grow-light system for the turf in- 24-inches from the surface, would travel side the dome. Robertson even ran a ques- around the field slowly during the night." tionnaire in the sports section asking fans To explain some of these ideas to Toron- NATURAL TURF CARPETS to vote for natural or artificial turf. He later toans, the fan club presented a Public Fo- THE WAY TO NFL reported natural was preferred by 400 to 1. rum on a February weekend with four natural Stadium Corp. has been receptive to any turf experts. The club paid air fares and hotel PLAYOFFS type of surface which fit the needs of a multi- accomodations for PATs Dr. William Daniel An analysis of the perfonnance of National purpose stadium. Not only did the provin- and Laurel Meade, The Toro Company's Dr. Football League teams over the past 20 cial (public) corporation propose a retrac- James Watson, and Mile High Stadium (a years has shown that teams playing on table dome so fans could enjoy an outdoor PAT field) turf manager Steve Wightman natural turf surfaces have a better chance stadium during thesprinq and summer, it to Toronto in February so they could an- of making the playoffs. The survey by BASF is evaluating four proposals for natural turf swer questions of Toronto fans and the lo- Corporation Fibers Div. revealed that in the and seven for artificial. "We are looking ob- cal media. past 20 years 59 percent of the teams in jectivelyat all types of surfaces," says Ray Stadium Corp. took advantage of the sit- the Super Bowl had home fields of natural McNeal, corporate secretary for Stadium uation and held private meetings with the turf. Corp. "The facility will be used for concerts, four experts the same day. "We've also Only 11 out of 28 NFL teams still play on boat shows, swap meets and many other spoken with George Toma of the Kansas natural turf during home games. Yet, out events in addition to baseball and Canadian City Chiefs and many others about the stadi- of the ten teams that have made the playoffs football. For a natural surface to work it has um field," said McNeal. more than six times, seven have natural turf. It's only fair to point out that the team with the most playoff games (18), the Dallas Cow- boys, has artificial turf. The Raiders, the team with the second most playoff games (15), YAMAHA DONATES $10,000 TO COLLEGE OF THE DESERT plays on natural. Other teams with more than six playoff games and natural home fields include the Rams, Dolphins, Redskins, Browns, Forty Niners and Colts. The Vik- ings and Steelers have artificial home fields. Palmer Skoglund, manager of the BASF Fibers Group, said he started compiling the statistics after reading articles comparing injuries on artificial and natural turf. BASF also makes a product for natural fields called Enkaturf. Skoglund believes teams playing on grass are healthier than teams playing primarily on artificial turf. "Healthier players trans- late into better teams," says Skoglund. Of course, this year the Giants played more games on artificial turf than the Broncos, Ben Watanabe (right), president of Yamaha Motor Corporation, hands a check for $10,000 to and they took the crown. Furthermore, nearly Tony Manzoni, director of the College of the Desert Institute for Golf Course Management. The gift will be used to develop educational programs on golf car management at the College. all NFL teams practice at least part of the The Palm Springs, CA, resort area features more than 60 golf courses. "The rental of golf cars time on artificial turf. But, as Skoglund says, is a critical part of a course's bottom line, so it's important that managers be informed about numbers don't lie. They must mean some- their management," said Watanabe. Also present during the ceremony were (left to right) Yamaha's thing, especially when that something is Shane Muraki, Bob Torvick and Gary Jones. making it to the Super Bowl. 30 sportsTURF