Posted on: Tuesday, July 15, 2003
Stadium turf work nearly finished
By Brandon Masuoka
Advertiser Staff Writer
The $1.3 million installation of a new playing surface at Aloha Stadium will be completed by the end of this week, according to a FieldTurf installation representative.
The FieldTurf surface — in which blade-like material is stabilized by sand-and-rubber infill — has replaced the stadium's AstroTurf. Work crews yesterday were layering the field with the sand-and-rubber infill.
"It's going to be pretty much done by (today)," FieldTurf installer Pierre Alary said. "Thursday for sure, this field will be all finished except for the paint. We're giving the field over to the stadium on Friday."
The first athletic event scheduled to be played on the new turf is a Women's Professional Football League game between the Houston Energy and the Hawai'i-based Pacific Blast on Aug. 3, according to Pacific Blast owner Nicole Wylie.
"As of right now, the game's a go," Wylie said yesterday.
The new turf was originally scheduled to be ready by the Pro Bowl on Feb. 2, but concerns over rushed construction, an unfinished contract and weather unpredictability prompted Gov. Linda Lingle and the National Football League to delay the installation between April and May.
Work crews started the installation on April 1 and the project was scheduled to be completed by May 24. However, additional work on the perimeter of the field took longer than expected, Alary said.
Alary said workers constructed removable FieldTurf "trays" for the dirt areas on the baseball field and areas where the stadium moves into football configuration. More than 100 removable trays were built to help ease the transition from baseball configuration to football configuration.
"We made some very nice portable trays they can pull in and out," Alary said. "That was a lot of work. It took a fair amount of time to do that."
George Toma, an NFL field consultant, said Aloha Stadium's 129,760-square-foot baseball field will be covered with about 600 tons of rubber and sand. The sand is imported from China.
Toma said the field will likely be similar in feel to Seahawks Stadium, home of the NFL's Seattle Seahawks, which was ranked the third-best playing surface by the NFL Players Association.
"I think the footing will be like the Seattle Seahawks' stadium," Toma said. "I would say, maybe when we get it all done, it could be just as good or maybe it will be better. I think it's going to play great. It will look like a putting green."
FieldTurf CEO John Gilman said Aloha Stadium is the second FieldTurf stadium capable of hosting football, baseball and soccer games. The Tokyo Dome was the first FieldTurf stadium to be convertible for three sports, Gilman said.
Replacing Aloha Stadium's AstroTurf was a key issue in keeping the NFL Pro Bowl in Hawai'i. The NFL prefers natural grass or FieldTurf because its players have complained about injuries suffered on AstroTurf. The replacement turf was part of a contract in 2000 between the Hawai'i Tourism Authority and the Pro Bowl to keep the annual all-star football game here.
University of Hawai'i football coach June Jones has advocated a new playing surface at Aloha Stadium, saying that AstroTurf sometimes causes turf burns.
