Joe Robbie Stadium's PAT field is wide enough for international soccer competition.

The completed field two weeks prior to its inaugural exhibition gamein August.

Some of the greatest plays in profes-sional football are made off the fieldby people who never wear pads,

helmets or cleats. The people making theseplays are quarterbacks in their own right,but they will never be inducted into the Foot-ball Hall of Fame. They have contributedas much to the game as the greatest play-ers who ever graced the gridiron but you'llnever see them on Monday Night Football.Joe Robbie is one of these individuals.

Robbie owns the Miami Dolphins, a teamhe helped create in 1965 during the lastmajor expansion of the National FootballLeague. He knew then the importance ofa stadium to the success of a NFL franchise

14 sportsTURF

and has never forgotten it. Miami's OrangeBowl helped tip the scales in his favor sohe could build one of the most successfulfranchises in NFL history.

Every fall for 20 years, Floridians flockedto the historic 75,000-seat stadium to seethe Dolphins play. Loyal fans tolerated park-ing on city streets, college-style seating andlong lines at concession stands and res-trooms. The city did what it could to satis-fy the team and its season ticket holders.In 1976, it installed the first prescription ath-letic turf (PAT) field in the NFL. Seating wasupgraded as public funds were madeavailable.

To pay for some of these improvements

Rabbie's Law:

Bea5taclNotaTel1

the city added events. The use of the stadi-um grew as the Dolphins, the University ofMiami, the Orange Bowl Classic and localhigh schools and colleges played on a tightschedule that included concerts, motocross,soccer and tractor pulls. Robbie and Dol-phin Coach Don Shula became concernedover the impact of these other events onthe condition of the field and the stadium.Professional football was becoming morebusinesslike. Attracting corporate sponsors,season ticket holders and the best playersand coaches were based largely upon thereliability and revenue-producing ability ofthe stadium. So, in the late 70s, Robbiestarted voicing his concerns to the city and

Joe Robbie Stadium (right) is located across the Snake Canal from Calder Race Course.

·umowner,ant

considering his options regarding a stadi-um for his Dolphins.

Football was Robbie's life, but his train-ing was in law. Rather than making snapjudgements, instead he looked for small 100-pholes that others had failed to notice. Hehad developed unique contracts with hiscoach and some of his players to attract thebest talent for his team. The answer he waslooking for was not public financing oranother publicly-owned and operated stadi-um. Why couldn't he devise a unique ar-rangement to build one of the only privatelyfinanced stadiums in the League?

In 1984, Robbie's research led him to HOKSports Facilities Group, a Kansas City, MO,

Guy Kuykendahl paints the field for its professional debut in August.

architecture firm specializing in stadiums.With some creative planning, Robbie be-lieved a stadium could pay for itself andasked HOK's Ron Labinski and Dennis Well-ner for their suggestions. Having previouslydeveloped solutions for Giants Stadium, ThePontiac Silverdome, Arrowhead Stadium,Milwaukee County Stadium, CandlestickPark and the Hoosier Dome, HOK was anx-ious to perfect the income generating poten-tial of skyboxes and an improved type ofseating for season-ticket holders called "clubseating." Both types of seating could be soldto corporate and individual sponsors aheadof time to generate the level of credit wor-thiness lenders require before making multi-

million dollar loans.Skyboxes, luxury suites designed for cor-

porate entertainment during games, hadgenerated important revenue for other foot-ball and baseball franchises. In addition tothe $30,000 to $65,000 annual lease for askybox, a corporation bought a set num-ber of tickets to each event held in thestadium.

Club seating was designed for individu-als or small companies that wanted someof the same conveniences of skyboxeswithout the sky-high price. For $600 to$1,400 per year, fans in club seating couldview the game in a comfortable, premium-

continued on page 16

October, 1987 15

More than 8,000 yards of sand were graded to a tour-inch crown.

By the end of 1986, the stadium was starting to take shape.

Robbie's Lawcontinued from page 15view seat and take advantage of convenient-ly located lounges reserved just for them.These fans also purchase tickets for eventsjust as skybox customers do. Labinski hadhelped develop the club seating conceptfor the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadi-an Football League in 1977.

The Dolphins had become an importantpart of the Miami entertainmment scenewithout really providing local corporationswith much more than a seat. Robbie be-lieved that there was an opportunity to uti-lize this virtually untapped commercial sup-port to build a new stadium. HOK proceeded16 sportsTURF

Sand is carefully placed on top of the drain lines.

with a stadium design that included 216skyboxes and 10,000 club seats, far morethan had ever been built in stadiums before.

With a 20 year record of winning teams,Robbie felt he had the solution to financ-ing in his grasp. He convinced Dade Countythat tax revenues generated by a stadiumin the northern part of the county would eas-ily make up for a one dollar per year leaseon 460 undeveloped acres. He then deve-loped an extensive marketing program toobtain ten-year leases on skyboxes and clubseats. Before the first shovel of earth wasturned, Robbie had $20 million in lease andticket commitments, enough to convincethree banks to lend him the $100 million

he needed to build the stadium.He found the loophole he was looking for

and revolutionized stadium financing in theprocess. He raised the eyebrows of own-ers of professional sports franchises acrossthe U.8. and has helped fuel the hopes ofinvestors looking for expansion teams fortheir city. In the long run, Robbie may havelifted a great burden off the taxpayer in ci-ties with municipally-owned stadiums anddiscovered the way to "privatize" the stadiumbusiness.

He also may have removed a roadblockto major field improvement at stadiumsacross the country. Robbie has been a fanof natural turf since 1976 when he was in-

strumental in having the artificial turf in theOrange Bowl replaced with the PAT sys-tem. Natural turf meant the stadium need-ed a natural turf manager. Miami hired DaleSandin, a golf course superintendent fromGeorgia, who got to know Robbie well overthe next ten years.

"Mr. Robbie always took an active interestin the field," recalls Sandin. "When we hadfield problems he would first ask me whatwas wrong before he made any statementsto the press. He always supported me whenpeople took pot shots. He understands howthe PAT system works and what can gowrong."

"Joe Robbie wanted natural turf from dayone," reveals HOK's Wellner. "He was veryrealistic about the limitations of a naturalfield, but he insisted on it anyway. He sup-ported the NFL regulation requiring all natur-al fields to have tarps available in case ofrain. When the PAT people asked if a tarpstorage area could be built underneath thestands along one side of the field, he ap-proved the change order without hesitation."

The stadium site, which is located on theSnake Canal in Davie, FL, across fromCalder Race Course, presented addition-al challenges for HOK, the general contractorHuber Hunt and Nichols, and Southern TurfNurseries, the field installation contractor.At its original elevation, the water table wasjust a foot under the surface. Soil and com-paction tests showed the existing sandy soil

Both irrigation lines and the network of perforated pipe were placed on top of theplastic barrier.

and inconsistent rock formations below thesurface would not settle evenly under theweight of a stadium and 73,000 football fans.

Many stadiums are built partially belowground with the field below the outside ele-vation. Designers like to have spectatorsenter stadiums on a concourse above thefirst level of seating. This simplifies accessfor all fans. Due to the shallow water tablebeneath Joe Robbie Stadium, a differentapproach wa~ needed.

Since all fans would have to go up to reachtheir seats and down to exit the stadium,

HOK devised a set of eight circular rampswith escalators- two for each corner of thefacility. A capacity crowd can leave the stadi-um in about 15 minutes.

To compress the rock and sand beforethe first cement was poured, 500 cubic yardsof fill was piled on the stadium's footprint.The 40 foot high mountain was left un-touched for nearly four months before it wasspread over the site. When the dozers.finished, the stadium floor was ten feet abovethe former ground level.

continued on page 18

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lnigation and drainage lines lead into a central control room.

Robbie's Lawcontinued from page 17

While not all of Robbie's experiences withPAT were pleasant, he believed he under-stood why because of his frequent discus-sions with Sandin. Cancellations are adefinite threat in Miami where tropical stormsare common and it rains nearly 60 inchesevery year. One cancellation can take morethan $200,000 off the bottom line. Robbiehad seen the pumps at the Orange Bowlsuck standing water off the field in a mat-ter of minutes. Despite a tight budget, heset aside the $600,000 for a PAT field.

As footers were poured and girders startedto form the patternof a stadium, PAT's Dr.William Daniel and Laurel Meade started

Two pumps provide suction for the drainage system.

making final adjustments in the plan withDr. Tim Bowyer, Turner Gibson and Bill Wil-son of Southern Turf Nurseries. The plansand prices for the stadium field were firstsubmitted in the summer of 1985. It wasnow August 1986 and construction of thefield was to start in February, 1987. Rob-bie takes special interest in the plans forthe irrigation system and asks Wellner tocheck on other PAT fields with surface ir-rigation systems. He is concerned aboutheads located on the field. To satisfy Rob-bie's concern, the number of heads on theplaying surface was reduced to 12, four ofthose in the end zone.

More than three acres of Tifway ber-mudagrass sod was being custom-grown

on sandy soil at STN's sod farm in LakeWales, FL. "We had soil samples from thefarm tested," explained Wilson. "The lab saidthey were the closest thing to a greens mixthey had ever seen." More than 8,000 yardsof sand with a specific particle size wereordered in addition to three miles of drainagepipe, three acres of plastic liner, and 60,000pounds of calcined clay. Orders for the ir-rigation supplies and two vacuum pumpswere also placed months in advance.

On February 9,1987, the STN crews be-gan lazer grading the flat subgrade. No slopeis required for the PAT system to operate.The plastic moisture barrier was installedover the subgrade and up to the stands sur-

continued on page 20

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Robbie's Lawcontinued from page 18

rounding the field. The network of wrappedperforated drain pipe was then put togetheron top of the liner. The distance betweendrain lines is closest in the center third ofthe field, the part of the field receiving themost wear. In this part of the field the linesare only eight feet apart. This enables thedrainage system to remove up to four inchesof rain per hour from the center of the field.

The drain lines feed into "wet pits" locatedbehind the goal posts at each end of thefield. The subirrigation system works by in-jecting water into the drain lines at the wetpits. By removing water from the wet pits'

and adding suction, excess moisture isdrawn out of the root zone quickly. This dual-purpose drainage system is really the heartof the PAT system. The sand root zone onlyimproves its performance.

With the drainage network in place, STNstarted putting together the surface irriga-tion system. It consists of 44 Toro 640 heads,64 feet apart, in a square pattern. The headsare divided into six zones. The playing sur-face is divided into two zones splitting thefield down the center.

The ability to irrigate the playing surfaceand not the perimeter was important, butDaniel also wanted to be able to operateall zones at the same time. This required

a larger six-inch main line and anotherchange order which was quickly granted byRobbie. "We got everything we asked for,"exclaimed Wilson. "The Dolphins' cooper-ation made this project the smoothest in-stallation we've ever had."

With the drainage and irrigation systemsin place, 8,000 yards (13 inches) of sandwere spread over the field. After mixing thecalcined clay into the top three inches ofsand, a four inch crown running from thecenter of the field to the sidelines was grad-ed. "The only purpose of the crown is tomake water flow off the tarp during a rain,"explains Daniel. "The NFL requires a tarpto cover the playing surface in case of rain.The areas outside of the playing surfaceare perfectly flat."

By May 1, all 128,000 square feet of Tif-way sod was down and rolled. The sod waslaid in sections to fit the irrigation zones."Soil and air temperatures were perfect,"recalls Wilson. Within days the sod was root-ed into the sand/calcined clay mix. "If any-thing, it grew too well. We started to buildup a thatch layer faster than we would haveliked. We had to maintain the field ourselvesuntil Dean Kuykendahl was hired in July."

20 sporfsTURF

Suction can be directed to certain parts of thefield with these valves.

Kuykendahl was not very familiar withwarm season grasses when he left LewisUniversity in Romeoville, IL, to take the jobat Robbie Stadium. He had worked briefstints with Harry Gill at Milwaukee CountyStadium and Steve Wightman at Denver'sMile High Stadium. "I had a lot to learn rightoff the bat," said Kuykendahl. "The first ex-hibition game was just a few weeks afterI started. I had to correct the thatch andmowing problems before then. On top ofthat, I had to learn how the PAT systemworked."

With help from Wilson and Daniel,Kuykendahl got approval from Joe Fletch-er, director of stadium operations, to get ver-ticut reels for his Deere triplex and a top-dresser for sand. He also removed the frontrollers from the reels so he could achieve

a better appearance on the thick ber-mudagrass. After two weeks of zo-hour workdays, Kuykendahl had the field ready forits debut. "It was tough at first, especiallywhen I realized how much Joe Robbie hadput into the success of the stadium," saysKuykendahl. "I kept in constant touch withDr. Daniel, Laurel Meade, Harry Gill, SteveWightman, Turner Gibson and Bill Wilson.They helped me through the initial problemsso I could concentrate on the PAT system."

The primary aspect of the PAT systemKuykendahl had to learn was the portionthat senses and controls the amount ofmoisture in the root zone. Ten pairs ofmoisture sensing probes are imbedded inthe sand field. Each pair of probes is locatedapproximately 20 feet away from the secondsprinkler of each irrigation zone. The twoprobes are placed 20 inches apart from eachother. Probes are placed in the top twoinches of the root zone and four inches be-low the surface. Using feedback from theprobes Kuykendahl knows the surface andsubsurface moisture levels in various loca-tions around the field.

If the probes indicate the desired levelof moisture has been reached it will halt fur-ther irrigation. A time clock also restrictssurface irrigation to early morning. WhenKuykendahl fertilizes he has to override themoisture control system to water thenutrients into the soil. "It sounds complicated,but it works great once you understand it,"

After calcined clay was mixed into the top three inches of sand, the field was irriga-ted to bring moisture levels up to specifications.

he says.Daniel provided Kuykendahl with a year-

round schedule for the PAT system. Dur-ing the winter (November through April) allgravity drains are open and moisture is ap-plied as needed by the surface irrigationsystem. During the summer, however, thegravity drains are closed and both surface

and subsurface irrigation are used. Thedrains are opened only in case of exces-sive rainfall.

In the case of heavy rain, the gravity drainsare closed and the valves to the two pumpsare opened. To override the moisture con-trol system the control is set higher than

continued on page 38

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More than two acres of Tifway sod was installed in May. Note the tarp storage areabeneath the stands.

Robbie's Lawcontinued from page 21

From late spring to the beginning of thefootball season in August the field moisturelevel is set between 30 and 50 percent. Itis increased to 60 percent during the sea-son. The field is covered with the tarp if itrains on a game day. Water running off thetarp to the sides of the field is picked upby the suction system. Once the tarp is re-moved for the game, the field can withstandrain up to four inches per hour without af-fecting the game.

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once a year with heavy verticutting.Nutrient levels in both the turf and the

root zone are checked frequently. Danielhas asked Kuykendahl to keep soil testresults in the medium to high ranges at alltimes and tissue analysis results above 3percent nitrogen, 0.5 percent phosphorus,2.5 percent potassium and 300 parts permillion of iron. Kuykendahl uses granularfertilizers (24-4-12) containing at least 50percent slow release nitrogen as the primarysource of nutrition. He keeps records of allfertilizer and pesticide applications.

One hidden benefit of the PAT systemis prevention of salt water intrusion from be-low the field. The final grade of the field isnormally seven feet above the water levelin Snake Canal. Saltwater does enter thechannel during severe storms. The sealedbottom of the PAT system would stop anysalty overflow from the channel from reach-ing the field soil.

While the stadium was built for the Dol-phins, it is also the only full-size, naturalfield for international soccer in the coun-try. HOK also took professional baseball intoconsideration. By removing one semi-permanent section of seats, a baseball layoutis revealed. HOK went so far as to includean extra locker room beneath the standsfor a future baseball team.

"Joe Robbie Stadium combines nearly ev-ery advantage a stadium can have todayat a reasonable price," says HOK's Well-ner. "As more stadiums are built with pri-vate financing, value and flexibility are es-sential. While the advantages of single-usestadiums are clear, we have to be realisticabout the importance of other events." Thisfall the stadium will host two shows in ad-dition to the Dolphins ten home games. Noone would state if Dade County placed res-trictions on the development and use of Rob-bie Stadium and the 460 acres it occupies.

The success of the stadium is best illus-trated by season ticket sales and skyboxand club seat leases. Wellner's greatest con-cern was over the amount of club seats. "Wejust didn't know how many to include. Wedecided to go with 10,000 club seats andI'm happy to say more than 8,000 of thesewere taken by the first exhibition game."Furthermore, 146 of the 210 skyboxes arealso taken. On top of that, the Dolphins havesold 53,000 season tickets for regular seats.That means less than 10,000 out of 73,000seats are available for game day sale.

"Everybody wanted to see Joe Robbiesucceed," points out STN's Bill Wilson. "Sup-pliers never dragged their feet or got slop-py with deadlines. Everybody was amazedwith how smoothly things went. The stadi-um people made all the changes we askedfor without a fight. It was a great experience."

"Part of our agreement with the stadiumis a two-year follow-up program to make surethe field and the turf reach maturity withouta hitch," explains PAT's Daniel. "So far, itlooks like some of Joe Robbie's successhas rubbed off on all of us. I think he hasset a standard for other stadiums to followin the future." ~