Stadium Authority gives FieldTurf OK
| • | Jones: Board actions driving NFL away |
By Catherine E. Toth
Advertiser Staff Writer
The Stadium Authority approved changing the existing playing surface at Aloha Stadium to FieldTurf, but set an installation deadline that a FieldTurf official said is "virtually impossible" to meet.
The panel said it will approve replacing the 3-year-old AstroTurf if the deal meets state procurement laws, no event is canceled because of the installation, and the authority bears no cost for the installation.
The Stadium Authority also wants the job completed by Aug. 2, giving stadium staff enough time to move the stands and prepare the field for the high school football season. The first game is expected to be played in mid-August.
But FieldTurf CEO John Gilman said meeting the deadline is "virtually impossible.
"It's going to be a phenomenal task if a general contractor can get the job done," Gilman said. "I'm not going to make any further commitments to finishing the field until someone commits to me that they're going to do it. Because we've never missed a delivery date, and I'm not about to take a contract and miss a delivery date. I've never done it and I won't do it. I'd rather do the right thing with the right amount of time."
He said the field can be installed in about two weeks. But that does not include preparing the surface for installation that could take a month should the asphalt need to be replaced.
But if Gilman doesn't have at least 12 days prior to the date the stadium authority needs the turf installed by, "I won't accept the work. We're turf manufacturers and turf installers. We're not earth movers."
A subcommittee, headed by Stadium Authority board member Robin Campaniano, is exploring ways FieldTurf, the Stadium Authority and HTA can expedite the process to meet the Aug. 2 deadline.
"What we thought had to be done consecutively can now be done concurrently," Campaniano said. "What we've decided is to really quickly see if we could proceed as fast as possible on several things," such as resolving state procurement issues and conducting a geotech study on the subsurface of the stadium.
FieldTurf has agreed to pay for the geotech study, which will recommend an appropriate support structure based on the soil and material beneath the stadium.
Typically a study takes one to two weeks and costs between $10,000 to $20,000.
Should the study conclude that installing the turf before the start of the prep football season is impossible, all parties will have to explore other options, including keeping the AstroTurf for the season, installing grass for the Pro Bowl, then replacing the surface with FieldTurf after the NFL game.
"Unless something miraculous happens ... it's physically impossible to get all this done," Gilman said.
Stadium Authority chairman Larry Price shrugged off Gilman's assertion that FieldTurf needs more than 45 days to install the turf properly, which would include reconstruction the stadium's base.
"He's a salesman, that's what he's supposed to say," Price said. "Because then, when he pulls it off, he looks more spectacular ... He doesn't have to worry about high school football or the 86 games before the Pro Bowl."
Price said the stadium authority's responsibility is to protect the taxpayer.
"They could put kitty litter with rose petals for the Pro Bowl, I could care less," he said. "But if they turn around and said taxpayers would have to pay for it, we wouldn't approve it."
The turf's replacement was part of an agreement reached in 2000 between the Hawai'i Tourism Authority and the NFL's Pro Bowl. The NFL said that if the surface was not replaced with grass or an acceptable alternative such as FieldTurf by the 2003 Pro Bowl, the league would take the game elsewhere. The annual all-star game has been played in Hawai'i since 1980.
The NFL prefers grass or FieldTurf because its players have complained about injuries sustained on AstroTurf.
On May 30, the tourism authority unanimously approved paying up to $500,000 to install FieldTurf, an artificial, grass-like surface. The NFL also said it will help pay for the new turf.
FieldTurf has estimated the cost of preparing the field — including leveling the crown — and installing the turf at $877,000.
The cost to FieldTurf may go up because of the shorter time frame, "but not dramatically," Gilman said.
