Guest opinion
School official fields questions about stadium turf installatio
By Donald Zimring LVUSD Deputy Superintendent

As stated in Kevin Park's letter in the March 22 Acorn, FieldTurf was awarded a contract to provide synthetic turf by Las Virgenes Unified School District via California Multiple Award Schedule.

Before the issue of infill is discussed, we wanted to address the issue of Oaks Christian High School being listed as a preferred surface. It should be noted that on February 13, 2004, SRI Sports filed for Chapter 11, leaving more than 500 clients without a warranty and several with outstanding warranty claims.

SRI Sports, aka Southwest Recreational Industries, did not have the ability to provide their clients with an insured warranty. One of those clients is indeed Oaks Christian High School. There is no doubt that the fact that FieldTurf Tarkett has the best third-party insured warranty played a part in the decision made by LVUSD.

Mr. Park is quick to point out the differences in the infill between some of the fields. He points out that some of the fields "use granulated rubber at the base of the grass." FieldTurf uses a patented system which combines both rubber and sand to provide for a product that looks, feels and plays like natural grass. It's the very reason why FieldTurf has more than 1,900 installations worldwide, including 21 NFL teams, 45 NCAA 1-A programs and three MLB teams, and has pitches which have received FIFA Two Star approval.

And the safety claims of FieldTurf are directly related to this grasslike fill. As compared to an average of three pounds of ambient rubber found in most other artificial turf products, each square foot of FieldTurf contains approximately seven pounds of silica sand plus three pounds of cryogenic rubber, which is 560,000 pounds more mass than the typical allrubber-infilled field.

The lack of fill weight and volume makes the system questionable in terms of G-max (shock absorbency) in use. Although the system may test out fine in the laboratory or when initially installed, all rubber systems are very unstable and easily displace in highuse areas. Without constant maintenance, highuse areas can develop a lack of fill and reduced shock absorbency for players.

Although competitors of FieldTurf attempt to convince potential clients that FieldTurf fields "get hard," i.e. compact, with use, this is a myth. FieldTurf's oldest playing fields have G-max averages similar to good natural grass. Moreover, compaction can only occur if the rubber and sand segregate in use. After years of use, this phenomenon, so ardently predicted by lightly filled vendors, has never occurred.

We certainly appreciate the work that Mr. Park is doing to ensure that LVUSD purchases the best possible surface for its students and believe that FieldTurf is the ideal choice.