Illinois State got it right the second time around.
By Devon Fionni
It’s no secret that facility upgrades can be a costly process, especially when an artificial turf field is on the agenda. However, it is becoming increasingly apparent that deciding just how costly it ultimately will be depends entirely on one’s ability to see the big picture. When shopping for an artificial turf field all the experts agree, it is essential to do your homework. With so many cheap, low quality artificial turf fields lasting less than five years, the market has caught on to the importance of investing long-term.
Since the beginning, FieldTurf has demonstrated a strong commitment to the future. By choosing to invest in quality, safety, and performance rather than basement pricing, FieldTurf has helped to ensure a successful future for athletes, programs, facilities, and finances for athletic departments nationwide. As the extensive benefits of artificial turf continue to be celebrated by the public, competing turf companies have emerged. With no proven history of quality or durability some companies have resorted to cheap pricing.
Back in 2000, many artificial turf companies rushed to market in search of profits. Purchasing their product from the same generic, off-the-shelf turf manufacturer out of Dalton, Georgia, little concern was given towards quality control. Unable to compete with FieldTurf’s quality and proven track record, the competition decided to emphasize low price offerings. Unfortunately for the customers, there was no physical evidence to disprove many of the fictitious claims and empty promises that were being made by the competition. With no fields in the ground to reference, many customers decided to roll the dice on the competition’s cheaper artificial turf product.
Eight years later, the truth has finally surfaced. Many competing installations have failed in their fourth and fifth years of use and have already been replaced, while FieldTurf fields continue to provide consistently safe results throughout its steady maturation phase.
With an industry trend shifting toward lower pricing some organizations continue to gamble on the success and safety of their facility and finances by opting to install a cheap, low quality product. Fortunately, the proof now clearly demonstrates the importance of focusing on the future. As many
frustrated field failure victims will tell you, in the artificial turf industry, quality is the primary determinant for the return on your investment, and at almost a dollar a square foot less, something’s got to give.
Robb Vassely, former assistant athletic director for facilities at Illnois State University (ISU), has experienced the importance of quality firsthand. After electing to install a cheaper, competing turf product they decided to remove it and install FieldTurf after five years of use. “The pre-existing turf was installed in 2001 and caused problems from the get-go. It didn’t last as long as it should have. My crew was tired of taking needle and yarn onto Hancock Stadium to sew the seams and put the turf back.” Unfortunately, lifespan and maintenance issues weren’t the only reasons for the field replacement, Vassely said. “When a wide receiver would run out patterns, his foot would go out of the seam. So from a safety standpoint, we had to do something.”
The University of North Carolina (UNC) has also recently realized the tremendous savings that come with the FieldTurf product. In 2002, university officials selected an all-rubber infilled artificial turf product. After five years of use at Hooker Field, they decided to remove it and install FieldTurf. Marty Pomerantz, UNC’s director of campus recreation, said the difference in quality was noticeable almost immediately. When asked to compare their old field to their new FieldTurf field, Pomerantz said “within a year, the old field was beginning to break down. With FieldTurf, we will have a proven product that we can rely on.”
Interestingly enough, both ISU’s Hancock Stadium and UNC’s Hooker Field endured minimal use and were both fully equipped with world-class maintenance equipment and crews. However, despite the normally ideal conditions, the lower quality products failed to last more than five years.
Unfortunately, for hundreds of schools and thousands of athletes and students, the necessary finances that are needed to replace their failed competitor artificial turf fields are simply not available. With no third-party insured warranty, the hundreds of customers who decided to roll the dice with an artificial turf field that has since failed after only a few years of use are currently left without options. Their athletes and students must now endure the potentially hazardous conditions associated with field failures until field replacement funds have been collected.
Third-party insured warrantees are not issued to everyone. In order to become eligible for this highly protective and guaranteed warranty, a company’s financial history is thoroughly investigated and evaluated. FieldTurf’s Product Defect Insurance is simple and easy to understand. Every FieldTurf field is protected for the full duration of the warranty. FieldTurf maintains a prepaid product defect insurance policy with an insurance company that A.M. Best Company, which offers data to insurance professionals and buying guides for consumers, rates “A++” (Superior) and Category XV based on its capital surplus and conditional reserve funds. This is the highest rating available. What is even more impressive is FieldTurf’s track record. In its 14-year history, FieldTurf has never had to file a claim, a true testament to the quality and durability of the FieldTurf product.
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FIELD FACTS
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A 10-year warranty is no help
for Tigard High School The first new generation artificial turf field at Tigard High School’s stadium in Oregon was supposed to last for a decade. Five years after being installed and with $630,864 still to be paid on debt services, the field literally came apart at the seams. The maintenance staff had a significant amount of difficulty trying to put back into place 5-yard-wide strips of Astroplay that, when loose, roll back like rugs. Tigard-Tualatin School District officials and coaches agreed that the field, which is used for physical education classes and football, lacrosse, baseball, and soccer games, was in dire need of repair or replacement. School district officials said they believed the turf was installed correctly but noted that the turf material and glue weren’t lasting. And while a warranty should have been enough to ensure the field’s life span, problems arose when the contractor that installed the turf went bankrupt less than a year after the field was completed. Brad Hoskins, Director of Operations at the Tigard-Tualatin School District, said he spent the past five years trying to get in touch with anyone from the company that installed the turf to ask about warranties, but was not successful. The school has recently selected FieldTurf to replace the field and ensure that these problems do not arise in the future. |
FieldTurf understands that the true test to product quality lies in its longevity. The Amarillo Independent School District (AISD) in Texas is just one of many satisfied FieldTurf clients who have already begun to experience the incredible savings promised to them by FieldTurf. Athletic Director Tex Nolan decided to install FieldTurf 10 years ago. Today that same field continues to be used nonstop by hundreds of students and community members.
“To this day, FieldTurf has kept its promise as our field continues to provide unmatched durability and consistently safe playability. All the savings in time and money that were promised to us from the start continue to remain true today. Even after 10 years, we continue to see a return on our investment as we receive maximum usage out of our all-weather FieldTurf field.” FieldTurf is the only artificial turf company on the market with more than 50 fields over the age of 10 that are still in daily use.
A study was conducted to evaluate the long-term costs of resurfacing the same facility during a 30-year span. Based on the physical evidence of premature failed competitor fields as seen at ISU, UNC, University of Oregon, Western Michigan University, The Stevens Institute of Technology and hundreds of other turf fields that didn’t make it past the age of five, a five-year replacement standard was used to compute the data. Based on the physical evidence as seen at AISD, Greenway Stadium and close to 50 other existing, fully functional FieldTurf fields over the
age of 10 years old, a 10-year replacement standard was used to compute FieldTurf’s data. Based on the performance results and replacement rates of 80,000-square-foot artificial turf systems to date, despite having a higher initial sticker price, over a 30-year span, FieldTurf managed to offer potential savings of almost $1 million.
FieldTurf has been helping its customers save money since day one. With a firm dedication to the future, FieldTurf invested in quality in order to help save you almost $1,000,000 over time. Regardless of the dozens of cheaper products on the market, with the savings and quality offered by FieldTurf it really is no wonder that an industry leading 2500 FieldTurf fields have been installed to date.
