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| Troy Squires, Vice President Marketing, FieldTurf |
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FieldTurf would like to address some of the issues considered in "Experts spell out the true cost of synthetic turf maintenance," Athletic Turf News, May 24, 2005.
I feel that there are three points that need to be addressed — specifically some points laid out by Amy J. Fouty, CSFM, athletic turf manager for Michigan State University.
I want to first point out that this is not an attack directed at Fouty. She was a pleasure to deal with when she was at the University of Michigan, where we have two fields.
1. Safety (stability and footing)
These are very strong comments and from what I can tell, are not supported by any documentation. We have done our research and have a five-year safety study in hand: "Incidence, Causes, and Severity of High School Football Injuries on FieldTurf Versus Natural Grass: A 5-Year Prospective Study," Michael C. Meyers, PhD, FACSM*, and Bill S. Barnhill, MD, The American Journal of Sports Medicine 32:1626-1638 (2004), American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine.
[Editor's note: Related article, "Study compares high school athlete injuries on natural turf and FieldTurf," by Lynne Brakeman, Athletic Turf News, October 27, 2004.]
2. Maintenance Budget
The first part of the proposed budget is made up of items that are not typical of most synthetic turf fields! Listed are items such as seam repair ($8,000) and crumb rubber application ($5,000) as two line items in the budget.
First off, none of our fields have ever had either of these problems.
Secondly, had Astroplay been in business this would have been covered under the field's warranty. This merely suggests the importance of an insured warranty.
Several other items are also questionable – Groomer ($1500) and Hand Pick ($2800). FieldTurf includes a groomer with every field we install.
Simply by eliminating these costs Fouty's budget is now a respectable $5400. FieldTurf suggests an annual budget of $5000. So, it looks like we aren't too far off.
I am curious to see what MSU's natural grass budget looks like. Does the crew have to "Hand Pick" it as well? I am sure that it contains the same type of debris!
3. Information and Solutions
FieldTurf prides ourselves on having an outstanding customer service team. We also feel that our customer service department has the "information and solutions" that you speak of. We have a full line of product for disinfectant and cleaning agents.
I need to point out that FieldTurf does not have an issue with natural grass. I don't believe that this is an issue of "plastic vs. natural." We at FieldTurf believe that there is a place for both types of turf in this world.
Regards,
Troy Squires
Vice President Marketing
FieldTurf |
