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Impartial_Observer

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Posts posted by Impartial_Observer

    Turf 2020 and Beyond

    in The Indiana High School Football Forum

    Posted

    16 hours ago, Irishman said:

    Just spent some time talking to our director of facilities. here are some numbers 

    Initial installation of the turf was $800,000. That included removal of 12 inches of dirt, installation of the drainage system, the materials that go under the turf for an even surface, and then the turf itself. The life of the turf is about 10 years. To replace just the turf will be $200,000

    Maintenance of the turf includes 

    Grooming once a week to remove trash and even out the rubber pellets. That takes 2 hours, and is done 27 times a year from the beginning of Spring Soccer in Mid April through the end of November. Man hours on that come out to about $2500 

    The contract with the installer includes an inspection once a year for $1200. That inspection includes looking at the seams, and a G Max test, to test the impact the field can absorb. There is a sstandard for determining if the field can still be used for football with that test. 

    So a rough estimate is about $5,000 a year to maintain the field. 

     

    Now for grass

    Painting the field for 6 home games average including playoffs

    4 hours for the boundary lines and the full lines every 5 yards

    Depending on the number of people working, the numbers and hash marks can take another 4-6 hours; longer for fewer people. For 6 games a year to pay for man hours alone, that comes to about $10,000 for a season in labor and paint. The paint cost will vary. A 5 gallon bucket is about $60. He was not sure how many buckets were used per game. 

    Grass was cut once a week, so about $2,400 for that in man hours.

    The field was watered from early Spring through the end of the season. he did not have the numbers for what watering cost. With the amount of water used, that is more than likely the biggest expense. The only comparison I have is that to put 15,000 gallons of water in my pool was $200 here in Fort Wayne. I hav no idea how many gallons were used a day on the field. 

    Fertilizer for the grass was $1,200. 

    Seeding the field, and overseeding done in late Fall, and aerating the field was $500. 

     

    What is not accounted for in most high schools

    Maintenance for grass can run between $30,000 to do as little as possible to $60,000 to put time and effort into a nice field. A friend from outside of Indy that used to coach said that $60,000 was the annual cost their AD presented to the board before a decision was made for installing turf. 

    It is also recommended that grass fields be resurfaced every 10 years to add new topsoil, recrown the field for proper drainage. 

    Usage

    Prior to turf being a big thing, most fields in Indiana were low end as far as care went. Even on good fields, usage was drastically limited. Even a varsity team was limited to how much they could practice on the grass. We had PAL games on Saturdays on ours, JV games on Mondays, Middle School games on Wednesdays, and Freshmen games on Thursdays. We did not share our field with soccer, but several did. 

    The band could not use the grass field for practice because of the wear and tear of marching, and wheeling the props on and off. 

    Physical Education classes could not use the field.

    Have I mentioned what happens to a field when it rains? Especially what happens to it on a game day? Once the cooler weather sets in, most grass fields deteriorate rapidly. 

     

    In the long run, over a 10 year period, a grass field easily costs more to maintain than it does to install and maintain a turf field. The usage increased about 300% on our field as a result of turf installation. In my 16 years here, I have seen far more serious injuries on our crappy grass field than I have on our turf. 

    I will ignore any study that does not involve at least 100 grass fields...and I want to know for certain that it includes grass fields that are poorly maintained. 

    College and pro teams certainly have the resources to maintain quality grass fields, and I have no problem with those athletes and experts wanting to switch. But for multi purpose fields, which every high school field in this state is, I will still contend the safer and more cost effective thing is turf.  

     

    Good stuff @Irishman you know I myself as well as many others used to make intelligent, well thought out, cohesive posts like this, only to get replies such as “just let horses graze on it”. And handful of idiots have ran off more people from this forum that I care to remember. Seems it’s sadly a microcosm of our society. 

    • Like 4
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    Turf 2020 and Beyond

    in The Indiana High School Football Forum

    Posted

    27 minutes ago, Muda69 said:

    Yeah, if you factor in the goal of government schools getting out of the extracurricular athletics business entirely,  yes. In the short team, no.  I like grass fields better than fake fields.

    There are more out there than you think. Or you could have 2-3 micro-gazillionaires share the job for free.

     

     

    So I assume you’re volunteering your time, Snapper, and gas at Frankfort?

    Turf 2020 and Beyond

    in The Indiana High School Football Forum

    Posted

    31 minutes ago, Muda69 said:

    I admit I don't.  Would goats, donkeys, llamas, or emus work better?

     

    In your upside down world of grazing livestock on Football fields, I would probably advocate for goats, based purely from a fecal standpoint. Horse would destroy an area as small as a football field in pretty short order. But that’s ultimately your goal isn’t it?

    32 minutes ago, Muda69 said:

    Or you could contact the local Forrest Gump and get it done for free.

     

    Tradition.

    Grass stains on uniforms.

    Mud.

    Builds character.

     

    Sure because ever backwoods school has a gazillionaire with a Snapper. 

    • Like 1
    • Haha 1

    Tucker’s Hands Caught in Cookie Jar

    in The Next Level

    Posted

    4 minutes ago, foxbat said:

    MSU had an issue where it lost the dean of the business school recently over failure to report sexual misconduct of a professor although there's now accusations that his ousting was tied to a power struggle over the president's office.

    I was unaware of that, thinking more in terms of the Nassr debacle. 

    • Like 1

    The Joe Biden Presidency Thread

    in OOB Forum

    Posted

    36 minutes ago, swordfish said:

    The President pretty much stated in the first year of his term his plan was to slow the economy down.  Mission accomplished.  (6 - 8 months ago)

    A reliable historic bellweather to the economy is the RV industry.  Historically - What happens in the RV industry leads the greater economy by about 9 months to a year.  The RV industry began it's retreat in May of 2022.  Today it is shipping less than 1/2 of 2022 product with deep layoffs that hit last year and deeper ones this year.  Companies still producing are running 1 week on and 2 weeks off with limited staff.  Elkhart County unemployment is over 5% leaning on 6%.  Get ready - SF believes this is where the rest of the economy is heading.

    toon091123.jpg?ve=1&tl=1

    I have long monitored the RV industry for economic trends. I’ll be honest it was somewhat confusing over the last three years. 
    I haven’t watched cable news since April of 20, but I did catch most of Biden’s speech in Vietnam…..wow. I was hoping his handlers would shut it down before they did. I think when you look at McConnell, Biden, Fetterman, Feinstein, it’s pretty sickening to me that their handlers are so obsessed with power and greed they would allow their loved ones to be subjected to all this. 
    I don’t know about you… but I’m going to bed….

    • Like 2
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    Hoosier Hills Conference

    in The Indiana High School Football Forum

    Posted

    Retired coaches have a lot to offer younger staffs. Rod Ballart has been at South Dearborn with his son Rand I think since he’s been there. Tyson Moore brought in Zimmerman and another older guy who’s name escapes me, been at Madison and BNL. He may still teach at BNL. Jeff Richey has worked with QB’s at Seymour (under Kelly), North, and now East. 

    I’ve always maintained sports are about relationships, I filled in for a crew on Friday at South Dearborn, when Coach Ballart saw me he said I thought you retired, I said I did, I only took this game so I could see your old man. 

    • Like 1
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