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Rams Get New, Permanent Turf

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  • #1

    Rams Get New, Permanent Turf


    The Rams knees, ankles and all joints below the waist are crying out in happiness today. (If they could cry out in happiness, but that would be weird.) The Rams are finally installing a permanent turf solution to the Edward Jones Dome that will hopefully cut down on the “Turf Monster” injuries the Rams have been suffering over the past few seasons. Here’s the quote from the Post-Dispatch:
    Ratcliffe said Rams officials appear pleased with an AstroTurf brand that can be stored away on giant below-floor rollers, and unwound and installed for football games.
    The dome’s original turf worked that way, and it’s still stored on the rollers, said Brian McMurtry, executive director of the Sports Complex Authority. For the last six years, temporary artificial turfs have been installed for each season and then removed.
    So, the Rams were too cheap or lazy to get new turf installed on their actual rollers that they already had under the stadium. Instead they just kept buying new turf every year and putting it down like cheap carpet. The Rams were certainly putting their players at risk and we saw a few turf monster injuries just in 2009. Laurent Robinson was playing like a number 1 wide receiver and broke his leg coming down on the turf. Bradley Fletcher was playing his best football of his rookie season and came down on his leg and tore up his knee. The Rams resorted to their backup backup guard Roger Allen in the final regular season game and he blew out his knee early in the game blocking on a routine play.
    The temporary turf, which was replaced once a year for six years had to go and finally the Rams are doing the right thing and replacing it. Hopefully, the turf can get worn in correctly so that these preventable injuries will not happen any longer.


    --Courtesy of Rams Gab
    Tags: None
  • #2
    Re: Rams Get New, Permanent Turf

    So, the Rams were too cheap or lazy to get new turf installed on their actual rollers that they already had under the stadium.


    I'd say it is the cheap more then lazy. Sell the team soon, Chip.

    Comment

    • #3
      Re: Rams Get New, Permanent Turf

      Great News!!! This should help cut down on injuries with the combination of a new training staff

      Comment

      • #4
        Re: Rams Get New, Permanent Turf

        so its official? cause the link you sent with the st louis post dispatch just said a deal was close

        Comment

        • #5
          Re: Rams Get New, Permanent Turf

          About time. The green concrete was great for the Greatest Show on Turf days, but it's been time to switch over for a few years now.

          Comment

          • #6
            We're bringing back the Astroturf?!

            I knew it. The solution was bring back the carpet. (LOL) *eye roll*

            Comment

            • #7
              Re: Rams Get New, Permanent Turf

              Maybe that fired trainer will get his job back now?

              Comment

              • #8
                Re: Rams Get New, Permanent Turf

                Football is ment to be played on grass not turf

                Comment

                • #9
                  Re: Rams Get New, Permanent Turf

                  It seems there are alot of teams that would disagree with that.

                  I don't care what it's played on, I just want to see it played.
                  "I've been saving the Universe for over a thousand years. I figure it owes me just this once."

                  Comment

                  • #10
                    Re: Rams Get New, Permanent Turf

                    Good news I guess, I still don't believe that turf was the culprit..

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                    • RamWraith
                      After one year, Rams looking to get another new field
                      by RamWraith
                      From KMOV TV


                      07:54 AM CST on Friday, January 12, 2007

                      The artificial turf field the rams played on last season is already being torn up after hosting just ten NFL games.



                      This is the second season in a row that a virtually new, $170,000 field will be replaced at taxpayer expense.

                      One year ago, News 4 was there as workers tore up and rolled up the dome's last field. It too hosted just ten Rams’ games.

                      In 2004, Coach Mike Martz was disgusted with the ten-year-old, rock-hard astro turf that his “greatest show on turf “had once performed upon.

                      The 2005 and 2006 fields, both called field-turf, were softer; made up of tons and tons of tiny rubber pellets and sand mixed in between the plastic grass blades.

                      The old hard field truly was a carpet. It was retractable and could be rolled up and put away.

                      The 2005 field was supposed to be a one-year stop gap until the Convention and Visitors Commission could get a field similar to the one the Toronto Bluejays play on.

                      The Bluejays play on a Fieldturf brand, but it's divided into 1,300 trays lined up side by side so that they can be packed up and removed for non-baseball events.

                      The Rams and dome officials visited Toronto and were concerned seams in the field could lead to injuries.

                      An official says it's still possible that Fieldturf could come up with an acceptable tray system in time for next football season.

                      Right now, nothing out there is considered up to standards.

                      Dome officials are expected to decide in a couple of months if they'll have to install another field at taxpayer expense for just one season.
                      -01-13-2007, 05:50 AM
                    • RamWraith
                      Dome rips out artificial turf
                      by RamWraith
                      By Elizabethe Holland
                      ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

                      Workers this week were expected to finish dismantling the state-of-the-art artificial turf installed at the Edward Jones Dome less than a year ago.

                      That the FieldTurf - thicker, softer and heavier than the AstroTurf the Rams played on in their first 10 seasons in the Dome - would have such a short stay was part of the plan. What wasn't expected was another temporary stretch of FieldTurf for the 2006 season, as the search goes on for a long-term solution.

                      The Convention and Visitors Commission and the Regional Convention & Sports Complex Authority hoped the temporary turf would be replaced this year with a similar turf - but one that could be removed for other events at the Dome, according to Bruce Sommer, director of America's Center. The FieldTurf could not be divided into pieces and stored, as would be needed to accommodate nonfootball events this year.

                      But while convertible systems are on the market, Sommers said none are satisfactory yet. So the sports authority will do just as it did in 2005: lease a temporary field from FieldTurf for $168,000 and hope the perfect system - estimated to cost $1 million or more - comes along before the 2007 season, Sommer said.

                      Meantime, the turf that was so well-received by the Rams has been cut into pieces and its innards - sand and small pieces of recycled rubber - sucked into huge vacuums.

                      John Gilman, FieldTurf's CEO, said "a variety of people" in the St. Louis area have expressed interest in purchasing the dissected turf, which will be glued together for its new owner. Gilman expects to decide on a new owner in the next week. The only potential buyer he would acknowledge was Vianney High in Kirkwood.

                      Vianney Principal Larry Keller said he didn't know whether a deal was in the works.

                      A single, massive piece of FieldTurf isn't a long-term solution for the Dome because it doesn't allow access to utility boxes in the concrete below - access needed for some events, Sommer said.

                      But the problem with existing convertible systems, he explained, involves seams in the turf. In April, Rams and area officials examined a removable system at the Skydome in Toronto. That turf sits on trays - each 14 feet long and 8 feet wide - that are put into place and removed with a forklift.

                      The seams "might affect your footing and, obviously, footing is a huge deal," Sommer said. "But we expect that somebody's going to correct that and we'll be able to buy something that's workable next year."

                      Gilman, of FieldTurf, said he expects his company will come up with an acceptable system before another temporary turf is laid in the Dome.

                      "They don't need it until sometime in August, so that's why I think we have time to work on some sufficient alternatives," he said....
                      -01-13-2006, 04:22 AM
                    • evil disco man
                      FieldTurf will be in Dome only one year
                      by evil disco man
                      FieldTurf will be in Dome only one year

                      By Bill Coats
                      Of the Post-Dispatch
                      05/10/2005


                      The first artificial-turf field at the Edward Jones Dome lasted 10 NFL seasons. The next one will be retired after only one.

                      The FieldTurf that will be installed this summer will be temporary, officials from the Rams, the Convention and Visitors Commission and the Regional Convention & Sports Complex Authority said Tuesday at a news conference on the dome's concrete floor. That's because a satisfactory removable system - a requirement for accommodating other events at America's Center - hasn't been developed, said Bruce Sommer, the CVC's director of facilities.

                      But Sommer emphasized that such a system should be in place at the dome before the 2006 season.

                      "We are working with all the companies that are doing" research and development, Sommer said. "And we fully expect - and they expect - by some time early next year that there will be one that we will be satisfied with. And then that will be our new permanent turf."

                      The regional sports authority is footing the $168,000 bill for the temporary surface. FieldTurf is thicker, heavier and softer than Astroturf, the original dome surface. Plastic fibers that are 2 1/2 inches tall are sewn onto a backing, and then sand and small bits of recycled rubber are layered between the simulated grass blades.

                      With the new turf at the dome and another being installed at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis, 22 of the 32 NFL teams will be playing on FieldTurf.

                      "This is important for a lot of reasons, primarily the health concerns of all the players," Rams coach Mike Martz said in a statement. "This is exciting to be able to play on a more forgiving surface." Martz, who was out of town, was not available for further comment.

                      FieldTurf was placed in the indoor practice facility at Rams Park before the 2002 season and became an instant hit, said Bob Wallace, the team's executive vice president. "We realized that this is a better surface," he said. "We sometimes like working on that at Rams Park more than even the grass. We really like the surface, the softness of it and the forgiveness of it."

                      Installation probably will begin in mid-July, with completion in time for the Rams' first preseason game Aug. 12. After the season, the surface will be returned to FieldTurf, which has its headquarters in Toronto.

                      So, in essence, a field is being "rented" for the 2005 season to satisfy the city's lease with the Rams. It requires that by July 2005 the dome remains in the top 25 percent of NFL facilities. Without the original Astroturf surface being replaced, that condition wouldn't have been met, Sommer said.

                      "This is not something that we had an option to do or not to do,"...
                      -05-10-2005, 10:32 PM
                    • ZigZagRam
                      New, portable turf could solve Dome's problem
                      by ZigZagRam
                      New, portable turf could solve Dome's problem
                      By Jim Thomas
                      Of the Post-Dispatch
                      Thursday, Mar. 10 2005

                      It looks like there could be a solution to the artificial turf problem at the
                      Edward Jones Dome.

                      The FieldTurf company has developed a tray system in which its artificial
                      surface can be removed after football games for conventions or other
                      non-football events at Dome facilities.

                      "We have to see it first," said Bob Wallace, executive vice president and
                      general counsel of the Rams. "But this is what the Dome has been looking for -
                      this kind of technology that can get a surface in and out of the dome."

                      Officials from both the Rams and the St. Louis Convention and Visitors
                      Commission are traveling to Toronto to observe a FieldTurf surface being
                      installed via the tray system at the SkyDome.

                      "If we like what we see, I'm sure we'll have someone from the (Ram)
                      organization's football side go look and see if this is acceptable to them,"
                      Wallace said. "Or what issues or questions they have. We have to get some input
                      from the people that are going to actually play on it."

                      Rams coach Mike Martz has complained about the Dome's AstroTurf surface.
                      AstroTurf, which is thin and can be rolled up when it needs to be removed, also
                      makes for a hard playing surface when concrete is underneath, as it is at the
                      Dome. The Rams have been hoping for a surface that is softer, thicker and more
                      forgiving but that could still be removed when other events need to use the
                      Dome.

                      According to FieldTurf CEO John Gilman, it takes up to eight hours to install
                      or remove a FieldTurf surface via the tray system.

                      "It's like a bakery tray," Gilman said in a recent interview from his office in
                      Montreal.

                      A big, heavy bakery tray. Each tray contains a section of turf that is 8 feet
                      by 14 feet and weighs about 1,500 pounds.

                      "We've developed a motorized ability to take it off skids," Gilman said. "We
                      have an attachment for a forklift that literally reaches out and grabs the tray
                      and then brings it over to its spot. And it just starts laying it down like a
                      jigsaw puzzle."

                      There are no problems with seams because FieldTurf is thick and heavy. It will
                      take about 800 trays of turf to fill out the Edward Jones Dome, but when not on
                      the floor, Gilman said, the trays can be stacked 15 to 20 pallets high in
                      storage.

                      Gilman said FieldTurf's first full installation of a tray system surface was in
                      Montreal's Olympic Stadium last season. Now that the baseball Expos have moved
                      to Washington, that surface has been shipped...
                      -03-10-2005, 10:58 PM
                    • RamWraith
                      Rams want new turf, more suites at Dome
                      by RamWraith
                      By R.B. Fallstrom
                      Associated Press Sportswriter
                      Friday, Oct. 01 2004

                      At the end of this season Rams wide receiver Isaac Bruce will have played on
                      the lightning-fast artificial turf at the Edward Jones Dome for a decade, and
                      he has the unsightly turf burns to prove it.

                      "They're not permanent," Bruce said, displaying various spots of discoloration
                      on his arms. "They'll go away."

                      So will the carpet-over-concrete field that most players hate, and soon, if the
                      Rams have their way.

                      The initial lease the Rams signed with the city, St. Louis County and the state
                      of Missouri as part of their move from the West Coast in 1995 contained a
                      provision that called for the deal to be revisited every 10 years. Each decade,
                      the dome must be judged to be in the top 25 percent of NFL stadiums in several
                      components, topped perhaps by the number and condition of suites and club
                      seats, or else the lease reverts to a year-to-year proposition.

                      Now is that time.

                      The Convention and Visitors Commission, the landlord of the building, and the
                      stadium authority are in the process of completing $4-5 million in improvements
                      to the dome's 120 suites, according to Bruce Sommer, director of the America's
                      Center. That's not enough for the Rams, who want perhaps 60 more suites in
                      addition to a new playing surface.

                      There's virtually no danger of the Rams leveraging the terms of the lease for
                      another move. Both sides report no animosity in discussions. The Rams say
                      simply that they want the best facility possible.

                      "I don't think anybody has that interest," Sommer said of a possible departure.
                      "I don't believe they have an interest in leaving and we sure don't have an
                      interest in them leaving."

                      The Rams have become entrenched in what has long been described as a baseball
                      town. Since they arrived, every regular-season game has been sold out.

                      "This is not an escape clause," said Bob Wallace, the Rams' executive vice
                      president and general counsel.

                      What it is, Wallace said, is smart business.

                      "It's not that you dictate terms," Wallace said. "One of the things everybody
                      was trying to do, and it was clearly the intention of the Rams and I think of
                      the negotiating parties of St. Louis, was they didn't want to build a beautiful
                      building and then have it fall into disrepair."

                      Wallace said Busch Stadium, the Cardinals' 38-year-old well-maintained stadium
                      just across downtown, is an example of forward-thinking stadium management.
                      Busch was among a number of so-called cookie-cutter facilities opened in the
                      1960s, and...
                      -10-02-2004, 05:51 AM
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