Rose Bowl update!

The Rose Bowl Stadium will be the scene of a lot of activity over the next week or so and I've got an update for you.

The Rose Bowl game will pit the Ohio State Buckeyes against the Oregon Duck on January 1. The field they will play on was installed in early December. (Pictured above)

While the Rose Bowl is being played the fine people at West Coast Turf will begin cutting sod for the field that the January 7th National Championship will be played on. It's going to take over 100,000 square feet of sod to do the job. It will take overnight work harvesting and laying the sod to get it ready in time. The Rose Bowl staff will not be taking up the turf from the January 1 game, they will simply overlay the new turf on top. The new turf will be cut at a thickness of one and-a-half inches to ensure it will not come up during the Alabama/Texas game. Money quote:

We have been working with the Rose Bowl since the Super Bowl in 1993. We’ve specialized in sports fields for nearly 20 years, so we’re ready for this situation,” said West Coast Turf spokesperson, Tom Stafford. “They are perfectionists over there (at the Rose Bowl), and are well known for excellent field conditions. But this project is extra special for them. We’ve monitored this sod for months.

"Three years ago we used the same ‘overlay’ technique at University of Phoenix Stadium for a similar situation with the Fiesta Bowl game and then the BCS Championship there a few days later. The guys at the Rose Bowl watched us do that successfully, and we all decided it’d be the right choice for their big game. We’ve been here before and are confident we’ll have a surface to be proud of come January 7th,” Stafford said.

Full article here.

Until next time, Happy New Year!

Winter Classic time lapse!!

from espn.com

The weather forecast for the game is not looking good. High will be around 40 and it may rain.

Until next time.

Main Street

The Cleveland Browns replaced the 'Main Street' of their field recently. It doesn't look as they replaced the end zone. They don't use it much. HAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!

Until next time.

Quick hit!

The Chargers were back to their usual end zone yesterday.

Their midfield was back to the team's 50th anniversary logo.

And they had some holiday cheer!!

Until next time!

Sneak Preview

Courtesy of Chad Ochocinco, here's the field for the Charger/Bengal game in San Diego today.

Winter Classic is two weeks away!!!

The rink and ice are in place at Fenway Park!

What Happens To Old Stadiums?

What becomes of our old stadiums?

A recent piece in the Guardian brought this up. It discussed several football grounds around England and what's become of them since they stopped being used. The most interesting use of an old stadium is on the north side of London. Arsenal built a new stadium and decided to turn their old one into...apartments! Check out the picture above: It was taken from an apartment that was once an end-line stand. The apartments aren't really family friendly, there are no three bedroom apartments. They're pretty cool and they ought to be since a one bedroom unit will run you upwards of $300,000.

I started wondering about old stadiums here in the states. There have been a bunch lately, and I don't have a lot of time today, so I stopped at two.

Forbes Field in Pittsburgh was home to the Pittsburgh Pirates and Steelers until June of 1970. It was torn down and the land is now used by the University of Pittsburgh. The stadium may be (mostly) gone but it is memorialized in a few places. Home plate from the stadium is near its original location. It's under glass in the floor for all to see.

Metropolitan Stadium was in Bloomington, Minnesota. After its demolition, the Mall of America was built on the site. Again a couple of parts of the stadium have been memorialized. Home plate is still there (now in a theme park.) The longest home run in stadium history was slugged by Harmon Killebrew. It was an astonishing 520-foot tape measure blast to deep left-center. The shot landed in the bleachers and the spot it hit has been forever memorialized by a stadium chair marking the spot.

Until next time!

School Days

It's not all pro sports around this blog. I do find some nifty items concerning college and even high school sports to pass along.

First, here's the link to a nice New York Times piece about Union City High School having virtually no place to build their new stadium (two schools, Emerson and Union Hill were combined to form Union City High) so they built it on top of the school! Check out the picture above, you can see the Empire State Building across the Hudson River.

The kids love it. Money quote:

“It was like walking through the gates of Disneyland: Jaws dropped and eyes were all over the place,” said Joe Rotondi, the head football coach, adding that so many players were looking around during the first practice in July that he had to stop and give them 10 minutes to walk around.

Friendswood High School, southeast of Houston, is having problems with their FieldTurf. In the summer of 2006 the surface was installed and since then has requred 300 repairs! Money quote:

The district claims the company hired unqualified day laborers off the street to lay the artificial turf and that crews did the installation in a rush. Workers still were putting down turf an hour before the 2006 season’s opening football game, district officials have said.

School district officials are considering litigation. FieldTurf Tarkett needs to make this right. If there is one group of people you don't want upset with you, it's football fans in Texas!

Last but not least, this year is the 80th anniversary of one of the great traditions of Southern football: hedges! (Link) If it's fall in the south, then there is some action going on "between the hedges," and it was eighty years ago this fall the first hedges were planted at Georgia's Sanford Stadium. The hedges were inspired by rose bushes that used to surround the field at the Rose Bowl. Apparently rose bushes wouldn't fare well in Georgia, so they used hedges, planting them during the night just before the first Bulldog game at Sanford Stadium.

If any of you are thinking of making a trip to Athens to covertly obtain a sample, think twice: The hedges are protected by a security camera system and the hedges have a chain-link fence hidden inside. Like the Boss said: "You can look, but you better not touch."

Until next time!

New Meadowlands

2010 will see the opening of the new stadium for the Giants and Jets. Construction is nearing completition so the teams invited some long time season ticket holders to check it out. The stadium uses FieldTurf and the fans were given some infill to sprinkle around.

Each team will have their own custom end zone, but will have a midfield logo as well. You can see the space for it in the picture above.

The capacity is increasing by 2,500 seats but the upper deck will be somewhat higher because of the addition of a bunch of luxury suites. The concourses will be wider as well. The seats will not be Giant blue this time, but will be three different shades of gray.

There will be four large scoreboard/screens, one in each corner of the stadium. Naming rights haven't been announced.

All in all, it looks pretty spiffy.

Read more about it:

• www.northjersey.com
• Star-Ledger
• press release

Until next time!

If Toronto Can Do It, Why Can't Chicago?

Pictured above is BMO Field in Toronto. It is home to Toronto FC of the MLS. The photo shows the FieldTurf being torn out. As I write crews are working on the transition to a state-of-the-art natural grass field.

I'll repeat that: Toronto FC will have a natural grass field. Kentucky bluegrass, to be specific.

It won't be easy. Full article here. Money quote:

The 7,850-square metre playing field will be the first major sports field in Canada to employ a SubAir System, which acts like a huge underground vacuum to pull away excess water. The technology, used on the greens of such renowned golf courses as Augusta National, Pebble Beach and TPC Sawgrass, also forces air from pipes underneath the soil to the surface, increasing the rate at which the field will dry.

In addition to the SubAir technology, an elaborate heating coil system that warms the soil is being installed. It will ensure BMO Field is ready no matter the conditions during the long Major League Soccer season, which begins in March and can stretch to November.

and

Finally, at the end of March, 2.5-centimetre thick sod will be laid. No matter what the weather, the heating, SubAir and irrigation systems will have it firmly rooted in time for the first game.

Not only will Toronto have natural grass, there are others in the north that have it too:

• Invesco at Mile High - Denver Broncos - DD GrassMaster with SubAir
• Dick's Sporting Goods Park - Colorado Rapids - natural grass SubAir
• Rio Tinto Stadium - Real Salt Lake - natural grass with SubAir
• Lambeau Field - Green Bay Packers - DD GrassMaster

So let's just stop all this nonsense about the Bears switching to FieldTurf or another artificial surface.

Until next time!

The Saga of the Soldier Field Turf

Soldier Field looked terrible yesterday.

It was in terrible shape two weeks ago against the Eagles.

I'm not sure how I missed this, but Soldier Field was resodded in time for yesterday's game against the Rams. It cost the Chicago Park District a cool $250,000. I'm sure the grass is of sufficent quality and the crew did a good job of laying it, but, it's December in Chicago. Under such conditions, how good can it be?

There are voices in Chicago calling for a switch to artificial turf. Dan Pompei of the Chicago Tribune had two columns detailing the difficulty of growing grass in northern climes in December, and advocating a switch to FieldTurf or another infill artificial surface. Money quotes:

"The Bears and the Park District should definitely sit down and explore the options in the offseason," Soldier Field general manager Tim LeFevour said. "It would probably benefit all parties."

The park district and the Bears have done as good a job as possible of keeping the playing field manageable. But there is only so much anyone can do. There still have been divots all over the field. Cleats often don't grip right, and players end up sliding when they try to stop.

As you can tell from the title of this blog, I favor natural grass. Yes it's difficult to maintain in the north, but when it's done well, it's beautiful. Perhaps the Bears/Chicago Park District should try a switch to DD GrassMaster. DD GrassMaster is a natural turf with synthetic blades of grass about eight inches deep that the roots of the grass wrap around. The Green Bay Packers converted from all natural turf to DD GrassMaster before the 2007 season and it's worked out well for them. The Broncos are happy with their DD GrassMaster field at Invesco. If it works in Denver, it should work in Chicago. On the other hand, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia didn't like their DD GrassMaster and switched to full natural turf.

One other point to consider. The U.S. Soccer Federation is trying to host the 2018 or 2022 World Cup. Soldier Field hosted the opening game of the 1994 World Cup, and it would be a natural for it to host games again. Artificial turf would certainly hurt those chances.

Soldier Field had AstroTurf back in the day. Let's keep it natural.

Until next time.

Lots of stuff!

A lot of stuff:

• The Titans field looked terrible yesterday.
• Once again, the Chargers knocked my socks off yesterday.
• The Chargers were also back to their 50th anniversary logo.
• Do your kids play for 60 minutes a day? They do in Houston, Minnesota, Tennessee and Denver.
• Not only does Denver want you to have a happy Thanksgiving, they also want you to notive their outstanding end zones. This is what they looked like back on November 9.
• LSU does a great job on their field! Their midfield logo is one of the most unique in college football. I also love their yard line markers. They do every five yard line, not just every ten yard line. They also use a drop shadow!
• The Edmonton Eskimos mark their ten yard lines in yellow.
• Louisville and Arkansas recently tangled on the college hardwood. You'd have thought they were playing for a giant peanut butter cup.
• The Winter Olympics are coming up! Here's center ice from Torino in 2006. I hope Vancouver looks as nice.
• Lastly....the Irish got screwed.

Until next time!

How Did I Miss This?!?!?!?

Shame on me!!

I was doing research for another item about time sharing when I found some clips of the November 8 Bucs/Packers game.

The game was notable because the Bucs wore their throwback 'creamsicle' orange jerseys. The guys at NFL Network had a lot of fun with Lee Roy Selmon and James Wilder jokes, but I was stunned when I saw what the grounds crew had done on the field.

It was 1976-1995 at the Sombrero all over again!

The grounds crew did a fantastic job recreating the look of Tampa Stadium from back in the day.

• The end zones once again had 'Tampa Bay'!!
• The Pièce de résistance was the midfield!!! Only the Colts have their helmet at midfield. The Bucs helmet was twice as big as the Colts. It was HUGE!! It spans 16 yards, while the Colts covers 8. Maybe my memory is corroded but it seemed that everybody had their helmet at midfield in years past. Oh well.

Until next time!!

Changeover!

Here's a nice video of the changeover at Air Canada Centre, home of the Maple Leafs and Raptors.

New Layout!

Like it?

I do!

It's wider than the old one which will allow for videos, and bigger pictures.

Let's Hit The Hardwood

Basketball season is here! The NBA tipped off in late October, so let's take a quick look at a few things:

• Holy retro, Dr. J! The Philadelphia 76ers have a nice retro center court this year.
• Everybody who has a product ad on the bottom of their scoreboard take one step forward. Not so fast Portland! Thank you for the restraint.
• As nice as the Philly center court is, the Toronto one isn't.
• New Jersey....I don't know what to say. And, you don't know when to stop with the ads. Okay, there are ads for: Peak (fitness?), something under the Peak ad, Doublemint gum, Izod, something under the Izod ad, and State Farm. That's six ads on the stanchion. Too, too much. You want to move the Nets to Brooklyn? That stuff doesn't fly there. Brooklyn is much hipper than that.

Until next time.

Time Sharing

Heinz Field is home to both the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Pitt Panthers. The Miami Dolphins and the Miami Hurricanes both play at Joe Robbie Stadium....err Land Shark Stadium. So, what is a grounds crew to do? It would be too much to expect, and too hard on the grass, to be constantly painting over the other tenants logo in the end zones and midfield. But, you still want to have some identity. Here's how these two handle it.

• Midfield - Earlier in the season, there was nothing in the Heinz midfield. Saturday, November 14, 'PITT' was on the midfield. The next day, the Steelers lost to the Bengals, but thanks to the hard work of the grounds crew, the Steelers had their own logo on midfield. Joe Robbie Stadium had the Hurricanes 'U' logo for the October 3 tilt against the Oklahoma Sooners. Three weeks later the NFL Dolphins lost to the Saints but had their Dolphin logo on the 50.
• End Zones - The way these two teams handle this mimimizes the work for the grounds crews. One Heinz end zone has 'PITTSBURGH', the other just has diagonal lines (which I love). Joe Robbie is even simpler, each end zone has 'MIAMI'.

I know that USF and the Buccaneers both play at Raymond James but I don't have any shots from those venues.

Last note: Al Davis has had his battles with the NFL over the years. It must make his eyes burn when he sees the NFL logo on his field.

Until next time!

Catsup!!

No major theme today, just lots of little things that have been building up.

• November 3 I posted about how I saw some college conference logos were placed between the yard line markers and the hash marks. I thought, at the time, this was unusual. Further research shows that it's pretty standard. Here's the Cincinnati Bearcats, they put theirs on the 20 yard line. Also, notice also their yard line markers are in red with the white drop shadow. The Clemson Tigers have theirs on the 25 yard line (which seems to be a standard placement) and also have a ribbon. The undefeated Florida Gators have theirs on the 35 yard line, and have their Gator logo out there too. I haven's seen any Big Ten schools with the conference logo at all.
• Speaking of the Big Ten, the Iowa Hawkeyes have been having a good season. I've been waiting a while to post this. Let's take a look at this shot from the Iowa/Michigan game about a month back. Take a look at the 10 yard line marker. It seems every football team has a different look for their yard lines. What does Iowa use? A check of this site reveals the Hawkeyes use....helvetica!!
• I can't tell what typeface LSU uses but they like to label every 5 yard line, not just the 10s. I also love their 'tiger eye' logo at midfield. The way they 'fade' it at the edges is outstanding. One of my favorite college midfields.
• Clemson University has their paw at midfield and in the end zone. Nice!
• The Denver Broncos end zone is unchanged since October 9. They have a Legacy game November 22, we'll see if they make any changes then.
• How many football teams put their city (or state) name in one end zone, and their nickname in the other? I don't know, I'm going to have to start keeping track of this. This past weekend reveals the Chicago Bears do it.
• College basketball season is ramping up. Here's a shot from a 1955 NC State/Clemson game at Reynolds Coliseum. Notice how narrow the lane is. And how short the shorts are.
• Ahh the Raiders. A once proud NFL team on hard times. Their field is on hard times as well. To be fair, their facility is also home to the Oakland A's. The conversion to football is not going well. The sad looking area is the second base area. I'm not sure why the area behind second base was replaced, but it looks terrible.
• The Miami Dolphins midfield classic logo.
• The Steelers recently replaced the 'main street' down the center of Heinz Field. Looks like the Chiefs need to do the same.
• Lastly...NASCAR! I love racing and it was in nearby Martinsville recently. When entering their pit box, it is critical that the driver parks their car/truck in the right spot. Check out the detail that Kevin Harvick's team achieved in marking his spot. Not so much for this team.

Well, that should do it for now.

Until next time!

Sweetness

I'm under the weather so this will be a short one.

On November 1, 1999 Walter Payton died. The Chicago Bears marked the anniversary of his death with a simple blue football with an orange "34" on the 34 yard line.

Walter Payton's wife, Connie, and their two children, Brittney and Jarrett made an appearance at halftime while a Payton highlight film was shown at Soldier field.

I had a tough time getting a good picture of the markers.

Here's one, and here's another.

Until next time!

Quick hit!

Just a quick one today!

The Black Knights of the Hudson have registered the wordmark "West Point". You can see the "r in a circle" in this photo.

Don't violate it or you could end up in front of this.

also....

Holy flying football players!!

Until next time!!

Let's fire up the Way-Back Machine!!

I recently spent some time nosing around some lesser known corners of the internet and have returned with some pictures of some interesting things:

• First stop, Metropolitan Stadium in Minneapolis! (Now site of the Mall of America) Way back on October 20, 1968 the Vikings hosted the Dallas Cowboys. Let's check out their midfield logo. Very simply a Viking "V". Also notice how close the yard line numeral is to the hash mark.
• Still at Metropolitan Stadium, the Vikings had the classic 'diamond' pattern in their end zone. Here's a shot of the other end zone. Not sure of the dates of these.
• Remember the Raiders? You may not have heard from them lately but they were quite the team back in the day. These two shots are from November 17, 1968 (the infamous Heidi Game). Diamond end zones again, but with a silver background and black diamonds. Shot #1 and shot #2.
• Let's stay in the AFL. Kansas City used to play in Municipal Stadium, and like many football teams have their helmet painted on the field. But how often do they paint the other team's helmet on the field? I've never seen it before but I located a shot from November 1, 1970 between the Chiefs and the Raiders showing both. By the way, in the shot, George Blanda is attempting a 48 yard field goal. He made it to tie the game in the fourth quarter. The game finished tied.

Until next time!

Ever feel like you're being...watched?

Of course you feel like you're being watched! It's because you are! The ever-present Google satellite is watching us all. Constantly snapping pictures of our fair planet and stitching them together so we can see ourselves from above.

Which brings us to today's post. The google satellite snapped a nice picture of Camp Randall Stadium, home of the Badgers. It was taken at a most opportune moment. It was the off season and they were in the middle of repainting the end zones. They have to do it sometime, and now it has been captured for posterity.

Along the same line, the Yankee Stadium photo was taken on game day. Judging from the crowd in front of the stadium, it appears to be a little before the game.

I'll keep my eyes open for further interesting satellite shots of stadiums and the like.

Until next time!

Quick hit!

I don't have much time today, so this is a quick one.

I was watching a little college football this weekend and noticed the conference logo on the UCF Knights field was between the yard line marker and the hash marker. Picture here.

This seemed a bit odd to me. I had thought they did those on the outside of the yard line marker.

But...a check of Virginia Tech shows theirs is in a similar position.

The NFL puts them outside the yard line marker. Another example.

I'm going to have to do some more checking on this.

Until next time!!!

World Series starts tomorrow!!

The World Series starts tomorrow!! Pictured here is the infield of Yankee Stadium during the ALCS against the Angels.

It looks fantastic!! Here's a nice shot of the outfield, and here's another shot of the infield and the ALCS logo.

Wouldn't you like to have that great Yankee Stadium grass on your lawn? Sure! We all would!

A tuft for the windowsill? A pallet for the backyard? Officially licensed grass is about to be sold, in the form of sod or seeds, to fans who want a patch to call their own.

Yankees sod is now available!!

Before we go...would you like a sneak peek of the World Series logo painted on the grass?

Sure you would!!

Let's try something

Let's see if we can do something....

If this worked, there is an embeded YouTube video about AstroTurf

I need to get this pictures/video thing worked out...

okay...getting better

Forget Denver, it's all about San Diego!!!

I'm back!

Monday night in San Diego was a Legacy game against the Denver Broncos. I've previously covered the Mile High staff doing up their field as part of the festivities. I hadn't heard a thing about the staff in San Diego was doing for the 50th anniversary of the AFL.

Turns out, they've been pretty busy! The Chargers last home game was September 27 against the Dolphins. A road game and a bye week gave the stadium crew three weeks to get ready for the Monday night showcase and they made the most of it. The before shots: midfield features the Chargers 50th logo and the end zone is their standard.

Monday night: let's start at midfield. They've put down the AFL Legacy logo at midfield. Here's a better shot of the outstanding detail work on the logo. Take note of the detail on the eagle!

The midfield logo is great but the end zones looked breathtaking! Here's our first shot. I love end zones like this! Here's a shot from the end zone camera. It's tough to tell but the white diamonds are trimmed in yellow. Here's a second shot. You can just see the yellow in that one.

Here's a third shot. Note that there are eight 'diamonds' in the end zone. There are eight letters in San Diego. Dare I hope that they spell San Diego in the diamonds?!?!? The next Charger home game is November 1 against the hated Raiders. We'll just have to wait!

P.S. The Charger cheerleaders were in 'throwbacks' as well....nice!

See you next time!!

Sods and Ends...

• The Yankees are in the American League Championship Series! If you like the grass at Yankee Stadium, good news! You can buy the exact same sod used there.
• Speaking of Yankee Stadium, it'll be hosting a new bowl game starting December, 2010. I'll be interested to see the field for that.
• U2 played in Tampa.
• The Minnesota Twins move into a new outdoor stadium next spring. Some people are miffed the turf is coming from Colorado.
• Idiots...'nuff said.

Broncos Legacy Turf, and other NFL notes!!!

Would you look at that!!!

Gorgeous!!!!

As mentioned previously, the Broncos are really getting behind the Legacy/AFL 50th big time!

Last Sunday featured simple crossed lines. This week the Mile High staff took things a little further by filling in every other 'diamond' with white paint. That really takes you back to the late 60's.

Mile High also has a midfield commemerative logo. Looks and understated and classy.

The Broncos have two road games and a bye week before their next home game November 9 against the Pittsburgh Steelers. That should give them time to work up something choice!

The Chiefs have taken a different approach. They have a nice midfield commemorative logo (looking a little rough at this point, it's their third home game in four weeks) but have their regular end zone.

The Eagles midfield logo is still in pretty good shape. (Donovan McNabb is still in pretty good shape as well).

The 49ers midfield logo looks terrific, but I find their end zone rather ugly. It looks in pretty good shape, maybe it's cause only one team was scoring in that game.

Want to see another shot of the Broncos end zone? Here you go!!

Happy Hockey Season!!!

The NHL season got underway October 1 with some games here in North America. But, the NHL, like the NFL, eyes Europe as a market they'd like to sell more jerseys in, scheduled some games there. The St. Louis Blues and the Detroit (Hockeytown) Red Wings played a pair in Stockholm, Sweden. The Chicago Blackhawks and the Florida Panthers had two games in Helsinki, Finland. Because if there is one thing that comes to mind when you say "Florida Panthers" it's "Helsinki, Finland".

As befitting such a special occasion, the center ice in Helsinki was adorned with a commemerative logo. Something else from those games. The dasher boards appear to be covered with plexiglass, giving photos a certain reflectivity. I'm not sure if there are ads on rolls behind the plexiglass, or if they have them just for general appearance. Chances are I'll never know because I don't live in Finland, and I'm not quite interested enough to investigate further.

Back here in the States, the opening of the season was noted with 'Face Off' logo just inside each blue line. Here's the one from Flames/Stars game last night.

Here's a great center ice, overhead shot from the October 3 Oilers/Flames game at Rexall Place.

Now we all know that dasher boards have ads on them. But, when do they get put on? This shot from the September 19 Buffalo Sabres preseason game shows a section of the dasher without an ad. Did they not get the ad space sold in time?

Last, but by no means, least! The NHL Winter Classic will take place January 1 at Fenway Park. This year the Bruins will take on the Flyers in the great outdoors.

And it will look a little something like this....

Pretty neat, isn't it?

Want another shot? Okay, here you go!

Coming Soon:

English Grass!!

U2 Sod...the conclusion!

In its wake, the U2 tour is leaving sod at stadiums across the nation

Soldier Field, Chicago Bears

The entire grass field at the stadium is being replaced this week, as is usually done before the Bears home opener. But this year, officials decided to wait until after the U2 concerts over the weekend. "This has been planned all along," team spokesman Scott Hagel said. "And it isn't unusual. Prior to every regular season opener, portions of the field are re-sodded. So this is something we have done annually."

FedEx Field, Washington Redskins

After U2 played at FedEx Field Tuesday night, the sod was not replaced before Sunday's Bucs-Redskins game.

But the Redskins have announced that the sod will be replaced after the game.

Which explains why the field looked awful.

Scott Stadium, Virginia Cavaliers

UVa doesn't expect to be that fortunate this time. U2's stage, located in the stadium's south end, is massive. Aluminum panels stretching about 75 yards, from the south end zone to the opposite 35-yard line, will cover much of the field for more than a week.

"It's likely the grass will die and not be safe and playable," Bauman said.

Still, a final decision won't come until Oct. 4, when all the concert equipment has been removed. UVa's football team has five home games left, starting Oct. 10, and the Virginia High School League will play two state finals at Scott Stadium on Dec. 12.

Live Nation, which is promoting the concert, will bear the financial responsibility if the field must be replaced.

"This has been a partnership with Live Nation," Bauman said. "They understand we have football games to play. They want that to go well for us, and they want the concert to go well, too."

If the field has to be replaced, a Charlotte-based company, Carolina Green, will begin removing the playing surface Oct. 4. A day later, the installation of thick cut sod, grown for UVa in Maryland, will begin.

Carter-Finley Stadium, NC State Wolfpack

According to athletic director Lee Fowler, concert organizers have put money in the six-figure range in escrow to build a new field after the concert. Of that money, some will be spent on resodding immediately after the concert, with the rest left for work after the season if necessary.

School officials have consulted with experts who have completed similar turf rebuilding efforts after shows in other stadiums, but they are anxious to see the results.

Coming Soon:

• Hockey season is here!
• More on the Broncos season-long Legacy project!

Two Issues

Okay, we have two matters on today's agenda:

• The 'mystery stadium' that had the simple end zones
• The 'U2 replaces-sod' deal happening around the country

ISSUE NUMBER ONE!!

First, the mystery stadium. Those of you who can read an address bar know that the stadium in question is Camp Randall Stadium, home of the Wisconsin Badgers. The picture I linked to the other day is from the Life Magazine archives and did not note the stadium, only that the photo was taken in 1954.

Later I found this photo, which was identified as Camp Randall. The letters on the vestibules were the tipoff.

ISSUE NUMBER TWO!!

U2 is on tour throughout our fair country, and their stage is enormous. When the show is set up, the road crew put down an aluminum 'floor' for the show patrons. In stadium with artificial surfaces, this is no big deal.

But...when the show is in a stadium with natrual grass, this can be problematic because the aluminum floor is down for nearly a week.

As a result, the tour is replacing the sod in stadiums that have natural grass.

Tuesday September 29, U2 played FedEx Field, home of the Redskins. Five days later the 'Skins beat the Buccaneers on a field that looked terrible.

More later...

Day off!!

I'm taking the day off!

Broncos 'Legacy' field more info!!

Found this through Uniwatch Blog!!

Throwback Turf Adds to the Atmosphere - nice article from the Denver Broncos magazine on how the grounds crew is adding something from the past.

That's it for today, look for info on the whole "U2/360 tour replacing sod" deal tomorrow!

Simple End Zones

As mentioned previously, the Broncos have 'retro' end zones for the AFL 50th anniversary.

I located a nice picture of an end zone from 1954 to compare.....

No giant school or conference logos, just some paint.

More on that stadium soon.

The Broncos and the AFL 50th.

This year is the 50th anniversary of the American Football League. The Broncos are apparently helping commemorate this milestone with....retro end zones!!!

I love these!! The simplicity appeals to me a great deal. It really is reminiscent of the early days of the league. I recall end zones being painted like this but with colors in the 'diamonds'. I'll try to locate a picture of one

Here's a link to a picture of the Broncos end zone

They've also got a commemorative logo at midfield. I couldn't get a good screen grab of it, but here's what I've got so far.

Post #1

This is post number one!

I'm going to do this until I don't feel like doing it anymore.

When I watch a game I find that I also look at the field/court/pitch/ice and venue as well.

That's what this blog will be dedicated to.

and here's a picture