THE FRONT OFFICE...OPINION PAGE

TO DOME ORNOT TO DOME ....

That is the question being asked by numer-ous stadium authorities around the countrythis winter. In their quest to have a facil-

ity that meets the needs of all types of events12 months a year, stadium authorities are re-examining the advantages of both natural andartificial turf. As a result, proponents of both sur-faces are going back to their drawing boardsand coming up with some pretty fascinatingideas.

A stadium authority is an organization estab-lished by a city or state government to wadethrough all the facts about stadium construc-

tion and operation and to figure out methods of financing. Their motivationis often to attract a professional sports franchise to the city-or to preventone from leaving. Sometimes the competition gets pretty tough.

The true test really is the fans. It doesn't matter what type of stadium acity has if the fans don't buy tickets. Anything that discourages fans from at-tending games, such as consistently bad weather, a losing team, or a badfield, hurts the profitability of a sports franchise. A few years of losses andany team owner starts looking for greener pastures.

To help their team's bottom line, more and more cities are looking into domestadiums. They realize quickly that domes cost considerably more than out-door stadiums to build. This fact alone forces a stadium to schedule non-sportingevents to make up the difference. Non-sporting events, such as concerts, swapmeets, auto shows and tractor pulls, require imaginative approaches to pro-tecting sports turf. The field has to support all types of activities for the dometo pay for itself.

Realizing this, the city of Toronto has planned a retractable dome for itsnew stadium, under construction a few blocks from old Exhibition Stadiumon the shores of Lake Erie. Toronto Blue Jays fans have made it perfectlyclear to Robert Hunter, vice president of Stadium Corp., that they do not wantto sacrifice the things that make outdoor sports special just so other eventscan use the same facility. The retractable dome is part of an effort to satisfythe fans.

It's the second request by Blue Jays fans that has Hunter and his stadiumengineers concerned. The fans want natural turf too. In fact, they have en-listed the support of Toronto Star sportswriter John Robertson. He has inter-viewed experts from all over the continent to defend natural turf against thestandard questions raised by developers of indoor stadiums.

In February, Rose Mary Branson, president of the Blue Jays Fan Club, or-ganized a "Grass Day" to publicize the club's position on the stadium turf andto provide both the fans and the press with answers Steve Wightman, turfmanager of Mile High Stadium in Denver, CO, was able to satisfy most ofthe concerns the stadium authority had about protecting natural turf from non-sporting events. Toro's Dr. Jim Watson and Laurel Meade and Dr. WilliamDaniel of Prescription Athletic Turf also fielded questions from the press, thestadium authority and the fans. Rarely has sports turf gained so much atten-tion prior to construction.

Before next summer, a decision will be made. It's important to note that,regardless of the final decision, the Toronto project has brought new life tonatural turf.

You can't force a professional team to stay in a city. Build a dome stadiumthat fans don't like and the team will still have to leave. We commend Toron-to's Stadium Corp. for the way it has listened to fans so far. We hope stadiumauthorities in other cities learn from Toronto.

12 sportsTURF

EVENTS...CALENDAR

MARCH24 Third Annual Sports Turf

Institute, Cal Poly University,Pomona, CA. Contact: Kent Kurtz, Dept. ofHorticulture, Cal Poly University, 3801 W.Temple Ave., Pomona, CA 91768. (714)869-2176.

USGA Green Section/Southern California Golf

Association Joint Meeting, Newport Beach,CA. Contact: Kevin Heaney, SCGA, P.O. Box3375, Tustin, CA 92681. (714) 980-3630.

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PFRILNational School BoardsAssociation Annual Expo-

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10 14 National Intramural-- Recreational Sports Asso-

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13 14 Southeastern Turfgrass- Conference, Georgia Coastal

Plain Experiment Station, Tifton, GA. Contact:Dr. Glenn Burton, Dept. of Agronomy, CoastalPlain Experiment Station, Tifton, GA 31793.(912) 386-3353.

27 29 Turf and Landscape Insti-- tute, Anaheim Convention

Center, Anaheim, CA. Contact: Ed McNeil,2492 East Mountain St., Pasadena, CA 91104.(818) 798-1715.

MAY20 North Carolina Turf &

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Circle 104 on Postage Free Card

What was once 34 acres of idle flood plain is now bUSy with soccer games year-round.

St. Louis ParkCarries Torch

For U.S. Soccer14 sportsTURF

There is a new spirit in St. Louis today.It's a devotion to soccer that bringsout players and spectators whose

enthusiasm has not been matched sinceMissourians welcomed back Charles lind-bergh from his solo trans-Atlantic flight in1927. They loved Lindy and his monoplaneaptly named the "Spirit of St. Louis."

Today a similar spirit is building in thecommunity for the sport the rest of the worldcalls football. The city and the game areinseparable. Only two other landmarks ap-proach soccer in significance, the 600-foot-tall arch on the banks of the Missisippi andthe brewery that's headquartered there,Anheuser-Busch.

The riverfront city has a rich heritage asthe once bustling port for paddlewheelershauling cotton and slaves up and down theMississippi. Mark Twain's legendary ac-counts of life on the "big muddy Mississip-pi" were written after he served as captain

of one of these riverboats. Charles Lindberghgrew up here, flew mail planes out of thecity and started the first leg of hls famoustrans-Atlantic flight at Lindbergh Field.

It was this heritage and the city's impor-tance as a center of trade for the country'sbreadbasket that attracted many immigrantsto establish businesses here. It was two im-migrants from Germany who decided to es-tablish a brewery here more than 125 yearsago. Eberhardt Anheuser and his son-in-law, Adolphus Busch, took a small brew-ery in 1860 and built the foundation for whatis today the world's largest brewery.

When it comes to sports, few companiesare as deeply involved as Anheuser-Busch,Inc. Sports sponsorship is part of the corn-pany's tradition 'along with its dedication tothe riverfront city where it was founded.Although Anheuser-Busch has played alarge role in the development of other ci-ties, such as Tampa, FL, site of Busch

Gardens, and Williamsburg, VA, it alwaysclaims St. Louis as its home in all its ad-vertising and public relations.

The Busch family owns the St. LouisBaseball Cardinals and built Busch Stadi-um, which serves.as the hub of downtownSt. Louis. August "Gussie" Busch Jr. broughtpennants and notoriety to St. Louis withbaseballplayers such as Stan Musial, KentBoyer, Curt Flood and Bob Gibson. WhenSportsman's Park started to crumble afterdecades of use, he built a stadium that wasnot only practical for baseball and football,but attractive as well, to serve as a foun-dation for urban renewal. Only the Archdominates the city more than BuschStadium.

When the St. Louis Youth Soccer Associ-ation (SLYSA) approached Dennis Long,president of Anheuser-Busch, eight yearsago for help in creating a soccer complexin St. Louis County, he did not hesitate. St.Louis has been recognized as a soccer ci-ty for decades. The Catholic Youth Coun-cil (CYC) in the city embraced the sport inthe early '50s as a healthy, inexpensive formof competition for hundreds of parochialschool students. Public schools and recre-ation departments in the city and countyquickly responded to the growing popularityof this international sport. As a result, a har-vest of talented kids growing up playing soc-cer have made St. Louis the capital of soccerin North America. St. Louis University's highranking in the National Collegiate AthleticAssociation (NCAA) tournaments each yearis continuing proof of the city's dominancein the sport. Each year soccer teams fromaround the world come to St. Louis to testtheir skills against American kids who grewup like they did, playing soccer.

Anheuser-Busch's involvement with youthsoccer started in 1971 when the Busch Soc-cer Club of St. Louis was organized by Longwho was then with the company's BuschGardens entertainment division. The club's14 boys teams and three girls teams havecaptured numerous Missouri state titles, Mid-west regional championships, North Ameri-can titles and even international titles suchas the Shamrock Games (Ireland) cham-pionship crown in 1984 and a tie for the Lon-don Cup in 1985.

Long has maintained his dedication tosoccer since becoming president of the com-pany. His international ties developedthrough the sport have contributed to thecompany's success in marketing to coun-tries where soccer is the major sport, es-pecially in England, Ireland and Scotland.Anheuser-Busch didn't have to wait for theNational Football League to play exhibitiongames at Wembley Stadium to get its mes-sage out to British sports fans.

When Long had the chance to help cre-ate a soccer park in Fenton, MO, a south-west suburb of St. Louis, he did all he couldto raise money and donated the use ofAnheuser-Busch staff to make it a reality.Plans were drawn for a seven-field complexon donated land in the Merramac River floodplain. Everything was to be first class. It hadto be to withstand heavy play and periodicfloods during the fall and spring. Fruco En-gineering of St. Louis specified a networkof drain pipe on a graded base covered with12 inches of selected sand topped off witha 4-inch layer of 90 percent sand and 10percent soil. Soil scientists generally recom-mend at least 80 percent medium-size sandfor sand/soil fields. The fields had to drainwell to recover quickly.

continued on page 16

One day after a 12-inchsnowfalt, the artificial fields at the soccer park were the only fieldsin the area available for games.

March, 1987 15

The subgrade of both artificial fields was covered with geotextile fabric beforeperforated drain tubing and sand were installed.

St. Louis Parkcontinued from page 15

The fields and stands were built by volun-teers with some help from contractors. But,as construction proceeded and costsclimbed, some of the original field specifi-cations had to be compromised. The deci-sion was made to increase the number ofdrain lines to make up for only six inchesof sand and a topsoil that was 70 percentconstruction sand and 30 percent soil. ARain Bird irrigation system with 24 headson GO-foot centers was installed on eachfield. There were six zones per field, eachcontrolling four heads.

Long arranged to have Lee Redman, su-perintendent of Bellerive Country Club inCreve Cour, consult on turf seeding andmaintenance. Chuck Hutton, Scotts tech-nical-representative, also helped select seedand set up a maintenance program. Lightswere installed on three out of the sevenfields. Although things were tight, it appearedthat everything was under control.

Then, in 1982, the Merramac swelled overits banks twice causing damage to two fieldsand upsetting plans for construction of a10,000 square foot building for locker roomsand meetings. Without the floods, the SLY-SA volunteers may have been able to

The goal box is painted on one of the new fields.

16 sportsTURF

manage the facility successfully. It was be-coming evident that more compromiseswould be necessary.

Long could not bear to see the promis-ing soccer center struggle. Anheuser-Busch's-standards were high and sponsorshad given generously of their time andmoney to make the center a reality. His ex-perience with the company's entertainmentdivision gave him an idea. What if Anheuser-Busch bought the facility and placed it inits entertainment division? It could becomea conference center in addition to a top-quality soccer center for local, national andinternational games. It could serve as thehome park for SLYSA, St. Louis Universi-ty Billikens and the Busch Soccer Club. Sud-denly the potential of the center took on newdimensions. The transaction was completedin November 1985.

Now the problem that had to be addressedwas how one facility was going to withstandtremendous use and maintain the qualityfields necessary to attract tournaments? Fur-

.thermore, soccer play was heaviest in thefall and winter when the fields were leastable to recover from damage. The centerneeded a way to stay open in all kinds ofweather without ruining the fields.

Long knew international soccer teamswould not play tournaments on artificial turf.On the other hand, since Busch Stadiumhas an Astroturf surface, he was familiarwith its advantages in bad weather. In fact,Monsanto, the manufacturer of the artificialsurface, is headquartered in St. Louis andAnheuser-Busch has always made an ef-fort to support other St. Louis companies.By replacing two of the fields with AstroturfSystem-90, some of the load could be takenoff the natural fields during bad weather.The drain-through asphalt base, pad andcarpet could withstand flooding and snowstorms and be in play before the naturalfields would be dry enough to play on.

"The fact of the matter is," says parkmanager Mike Krivonack, an eleven-yearveteran from Busch Gardens in Tampa, FL,"we can play more than 1,200 games peryear on each Astroturf field. We try to keepthe number of games on the natural fieldsdown to save the turf. Teams want to playhere because there is good turf everywhere,lncludlnq the goal areas and the center ofthe fields. By the time schools enter theplayoffs, their fields are often worn-out. Theyknow they can call us and be able to playtheir important tournament games on a goodfield. We had a foot of snow two monthsago and played on the Astroturf fields thenext night. Almost nothing stops us."

Two things drive home the point that theSt. Louis Soccer Center hasn't abandonedits support of natural turf. Reid Number One,the field directly in front of the conferencecenter and site of all major tournaments isnatural. Secondly, the soccer center hiredPat Gray, former superintendent of Para-dise Valley Golf Course, as turf manager.

"I took a lot of kidding from other golfcourse superintendents when I took this job,"admits Gray. "They thought maintaining ar-

tificial turf was beneath a superintendent." Gray has a degreein agronomy from Southwest Missouri State Univeristy in Spring-field, MO. "I just felt that the artificial fields would enable meto make the five natural fields the best in the country. How ma-ny superintendents get a chance to have the best golf coursein the country?"

Gray had just begun to work at the soccer center when con-struction started on the two Astroturf fields. "We had the origi-nal specificiations for the natural fields, but we didn't know howthey were actually built." As Fred Webber Construction Com-pany began excavating for the base of the artificial fields, Graywatched like an archeologist trying to discover what lay beneaththe surface. That's when he learned the sand base and topsoilwere shallower than planned and the drainage lines were closertogether. "Knowing what's under the turf has been a great helpin modifying field maintenance," Gray adds.

Webber graded the subbase to trenches running lengthwisedown the fields 20 feet apart. Six-inch perforated drain pipe wasplaced in the trenches and both fields were completely coveredwith a geotextile blanket. A thick layer of washed, three-quarter-inchgravel was spread over the fabric and graded to be flat. Fourinches of "pop-corn asphalt," were carefully laid over the grav-el to provide a smooth-as-possible surface.

Sport Install, the division of Monsanto that installs Astroturf,took over from Webber at this point. The two fields which ap-peared like parking lots, were sprayed with fire hoses to checkfor drainage through the asphalt. Specialized equipment wasbrought onto the fields. First the pad was carefully stretched andseamed, then the crew started installing the Astroturf. The con-version of the asphalt base to acres of bright green carpet wasdramatic, even for Gray. As the Iihes were painted on the newfields, people driving by the park stopped to watch.

Walking on the fields for the first time, Long and Frans VanBalkom, director of coaching for the Busch Soccer Club, felt thatthe soccer center would finally be what they had hoped for, astandard for other soccer centers to follow. Now, they could providerelief for the natural fields and keep both surfaces in play through-out the year.

Wasting no time, Gray immediately took one natural field outof play for renovation and "a rest" and asked the soccer centerto reduce the schedule on all natural fields. "Each year the fieldsget better because we can control them better," says Gray. Playershave learned to stay off fields that are roped off for maintenance.They are beginning to appreciate the difference in the qualityof the fields resulting from controlled use.

Twice a year, Gray borrows equipment from Busch Stadiumto scrub the artificial fields. A degreasing agent is sprayed onthe field first. Then fire hoses connected to quick couplers onthe edges of the field are directed in front of the machine withlarge revolving brushes as it scrubs the Astroturf. The crew al-so goes over the field with a Tennant Sweeper after each game.

"We've had downpours and played ten minutes later," Graysays, almost in amazement. "I can't deny the artificial fields arepretty warm in the summer, but we can schedule nearly all gameson the natural fields then. The point is we can use those fieldswhen we need them most, in the winter.

Gray has ordered tarps for the two artificial fields in case offloods. "I want to make sure silt deposited by a flood won't enterthe drain-through system. We can deep aerify the natural fieldsand topdress with sand after a flood. In a few instances we'vehad some minor resodding, but the natural fields drain and holdtogether well so far. It takes the river a few days to crest andthat gives Gray time to remove the goal posts and bleachersand to cover the artificial fields.

Since the artificial fields take some of the pressure off Gray,he concentrates his efforts on the natural fields, especially thenumber one field. "We schedule about 50 games per year onthe main field," says Gray. "After each game we touch up andoverseed any divots. We use spade forks to fluff up the soil inthe goal areas as recommended by a visiting soccer coach fromthe-Dutch Sports Federation.

continued on page 18

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The sandy natural fields are irrigated twice a day during the hottest part ofsummer.

St. Louis Parkcontinued from page 17

The other fields are used for up to 200games per year. Once a month during theplaying season all fields are aerated witha pull-behind drum aerifier. Once a year Grayuses a European machine called a Verti-Drain which drives solid tines more than afoot into the soil and provides a lifting mo-tion to open up the soil below. He topdressesthe fields with sand prior to using the deepaerifer to increase the percentage of sandin the soil.

In the fall, he overseeds each field withan Olathe slicer/seeder in two directions.Usually a combination of three Kentuckybluegrasses and three perennial ryegrasses

is in the hopper to limit the chance of dis-eases attacking any particular variety. Themain field receives about 600 pounds ofseed and the other fields get 350 pounds.

In the spring, all the fields receive an ap-plication of a starter fertilizer containing sid-uron, apreemergence herbicide that doesnot prevent turf seed from germinating. Ev-ery five weeks starting in May, Gray appliesa 24:4:12 fertilizer containing IBDU, a slow-release nitrogen. "I avoid applications of fer-tilizer, especially ammonium sulfate, dur-ing hot weather," Gray states, "because thecleats on the kids' shoes can break up thefertilizer granules and cause the turf to burn."

In early spring a leaf-spot fungicide is ap-plied, to protect the fields from any major

The main field is mowed in two directions and marked in preparation for a. tournament.

18 sportsTURF

problems with diseases. Gray rep-orts thefields have not experienced any problemswith insects.

Twice a year, soil samples are tested ata laboratory. Gray is trying to get the soilpH down from its current 7.3 to 6.5 with ap-plications of sulfur. "Right now the fieldsare at about 7.2," Gray reports.

The fields are irrigated daily during thelate spring and summer and as needed dur-ing the remainder of the year. The sandyfields dry out quickly requiring two cycleson hot, summer days. Gray runs one zoneat a time per field. Since there are six zonesper field, each with four heads, cycles canbe adjusted to keep the goal areas andcenter of the field from getting too wet."These areas get compacted quickly if theyaren't relatively dry during games," Graypoints out. All water is obtained from a wellon site.

The fields are mowed three to four timesa week with a Ransomes 2130 triplex reelmower. The main field is cut at 1112 inchesand the other fields a little higher since moregames are played on them. Thatch has notbeen a problem since the seeder providesa light verticutting action.

Gray plans to rest one field each fall formajor renovation. He takes the field out ofplay in August, heavily aerates it, topdresseswith sand, reseeds with the slicer/seeder,and drags it. The field is not returned to playuntil the following spring. "We can use thefield if we have to for a few games on a heavyweek," states Gray; "but in general the fieldis not scheduled for any games."

Major improvements have been made tothe soccer center since Anheuser-Buschtook it over. Diane Padgett, the company'slandscape architect, adds more trees andshrubs to the center's 34 acres each year.Hundreds of white and Austrian pines,flowering crabapples and weeping willowsframe the entrance to the park as well asthe buildings and stands. Ewes are beingplanted between some of the fields to resem-ble soccer parks in Europe. The facility al-so hired Mark Johnson to work full-time onthe grounds so Gray can concentrate onthe fields. The soil removed when the twoartificial fields were constructed has beenused to create a landscaped berm whichalso serves to hold back flood water.

Long went so far as to commission aseven-foot high bronze statue of a soccerplayer from world-famous sculptor RudyTorinni. The artist designed the statue af-ter viewing video tapes of World Cup soc-cer matches. The work depicts a young play-er with his eyes riveted to the ball with hisfoot poised to kick the ball.

Kick walls, practice goals and sand pitsfor goalie practice have been added for St.Louis University practices and numeroussoccer clinics held during the year by VanBalkom .. Few facilities otter.the completerange of soccer training equipment that thesoccer park offers.

"Th"e main exhibitionfteld grandstand canseat more than 6;400 spectators. A pressbox on top of the grandstand with an up-

per deck for filming or taping with completecommunications hookups has been addedfor tournaments and international events.The main field also features an animatedscoreboard and marque that includes a mes-sage center. Digital electronic scoreboardshave been installed on five other fields. Eachscoreboard provides scores on all fields atthe same time.

The St. Louis Room in the main build-ing overlooks field number one. Local bus-inesses use the facility for banquets andmeetings. Full catering services are nowavailable for weddings and private parties.Long plans to use the expertise of the BuschGardens entertainment division to developthe soccer park into a full-service confer-ence center. It is the only conference centerin the city where conference attendees canwatch the action on the field as they eat.

It's soccer that has made and will con-tinue to make the center recognized inter-nationally. In May, the center will host theOlympic qualification match between theU.S. and Canada. Canadian amateurs returnto the center in November for the USA/Cana-da Select Team Invitational. The Tower Lionsof London, the Gweedore Soccer Club ofIreland and the West German NationalUniversity Champions has already playedthere to date.

In addition to international events, the U.S.Soccer Federation Open and Amateur Cupfinals are scheduled for June and theMcGuire and Niotis Cup finals for July. Ifthe St. Louis University Billikens repeat theirpast performance, the center may hostNCAA playoffs. In June, the best high schoolsoccer players in the U.S. will compete inthe North/South All-Star Game. All this isin addition to state high school tournaments,the Billikens home games, the Busch SoccerClub home games and numerous clinics anda summer camp presented by Van Balkom.

The 47-year-old Van Balkom, who playedhis first soccer in Holland at the age of ten,hopes he can consolidate more than 20years of professional experience for the St.Louis Soccer Center. Working from the St.Louis Soccer Park with both young play-ers and coaches, as he has in Japan, WestGermany, Holland, Australia, Hong Kong,Iran and Indonesia, Van Balkom hopes toraise the level of soccer in the U.S. "Soc-cer has come a long way in this country,"he states. "While there has always been out-standing soccer in St. Louis, it was play-ers such as Pele, Carlos Alberto, FransBeckenbauer and Johan Cruyf who reallyhelped spread the sport over the entire coun-try. Most U.S. coaches forbid players to becreative. The result is that many players worknonstop the entire game but lack the skillsand the know-how to take on opponents.Very few players take their own initiativeand try to be creative. Those are the verythings that serve as the trademarks of theoutstanding players."

By taking the game seriously and provid-ing quality facilities for young soccer play-ers to become creative, Van Balkom seesno reason why U.S. players can't inspire

their own country to embrace the sport asEuropean and South American players have.The Busch Soccer Club has begun toproduce the kind of players Van Balkom talksabout. They include Ty Keough, Jim Bokern,Greg Makowski, Greg Villa and Pat McBride,to name a few. They play for teams suchas the St. Louis Steamers, Ft. LauderdaleStrikers, Kansas City Comets, and San Die-go Sockers.

It's not just players the center wants todevelop. It's also coaches to inspire andmold young players into world-class athletes.Many of the clinics at the park are forcoaches.

The demand for soccer facilities is growing

rapidly. But, as Long,and Van Balkom know,quality training and playing facilities arenecessary to seriously develop soccer inthis'country. What started out as a plan toprovide quality fields for St. Louis kids toplay soccer on, has turned into a nationallaunching site for soccer in the U.S. Thedifference is mainly in the scale which lo-cal organizations think compared to a com-pany which thinks big all the time. DennisLong has brought to the St. Louis SoccerPark an Anheuser-Busch perspective of soc-cer. This assistance in both the quality ofthe training and playing facilities might fi-nally be the boost the U.S. had needed formore than 20 years. @

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injuries growing every year, cutting corn-ers during construction just doesn't makesense," he told the group.

The industry needs some type of fieldsafety standards stressed Don Holland, anattorney from Eugene, OR. "If you don't cre-ate safety standards yourselves, the tort sys-tem will act for you," explained Holland. Heused Parker Stadium at Oregon State

. University as an example. The hardness andcondition of the artificial field were record-ed every year. When a promising baseballplayer died as a result of injuries sufferedwhile playing on the field, the records es-tablished that the pad should have beenreplaced sooner. "The real question in thecase," said Holland, "was how hard is hard?Standards would have answered that ques-tion right away."

More than 25 sports turf experts from theU.S., Canada and England spoke duringthe one-day conference held in conjunctionwith the Golf Course Superintendents As-sociation of America. The GCSAA Confer-ence and Show set a new attendance recordof more than 12,000.

STMA banquet speaker Joe Torre toldthe group that aspiring athletes get badhabits when they play on poor fields regu-

CONSTRUCTION COSTSPEGGED AT STMA SHOW

Part of the sports turf injury problem isan unrealistically low idea of field construc-tion costs. This is according to Dr. HenryIndyk, turfgrass specialist at Rutgers Univer-sity, who recently addressed more than 120sports turf managers during the STMA An-nual Conference in Phoenix, AZ. A safe,well-built football field will cost between$100,000 and $225,000, Indyk revealed withstatistics he has compiled over the past fewyears. This price includes proper drainage,irrigation, soil modification, grading and sod.

College, park and public school officialsneed to realize that there is a right way andwrong way to build an athletic field, Indyksaid. The right way, if financed over tenyears, will cost the institution up to $40,000per year plus maintenance expenses. Thecost for an artificial surface, Indyk said, wouldbe $165,000 per year plus maintenance.With proper maintenance and scheduling,a natural field can remain safe during thatperiod, he stated.

This is the first time a recognized experton athletic fields has gone on record aboutcosts. "Wjth the threat of liability suits from

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