More turf talk
Because of the Wild Things' announcement of a new manager last week, this was one of two stories I pushed to the back burner:
Florence (Ky.) City Council unanimously approved spending $750,000 to $1 million to replace the grass at Champion Window Field, shown above (click on image for larger view), with artificial turf.
The city owns the field, which is home to the Florence Freedom, and rents the ballpark to the team.
Apparently, the ground is settling unevenly and the grass is unsuitable for the Northern Kentucky climate (it's Bermuda grass - apparently they couldn't find any Kentucky Bluegrass in Kentucky). I know players from other teams often complained about the playing surface, which was bad when the park opened and hasn't gotten any better.
Freedom owner Clint Brown said it would cost $250,000 to fix the field. Brown said the Frontier League has banned play on the field unless something is done before the 2009 season.
"It is, right now, unsafe to play on the field," Brown said.
A guy named Butch Rankin collected a petition opposing the spending for artificial turf.The petition had 230 signatures, but his plea was rejected by City Council.
"When going door-to-door, I only found five who were in favor of this," Rankin said.
Frontier League commissioner Bill Lee told City Council in September that the league recommends that all fields switch from grass to artificial turf because it’s a better, safer playing surface. All new Frontier League fields are now built with turf instead of grass.
With Florence switching to fake grass, there will be only two ballparks in the East Division with an entirely grass playing surface: Washington and Kalamazoo. The Midwest Sliders, who will be playing their home games at Eastern Michigan University, will be playing on a field that has an artificial turf infield and grass outfield.
Labels: Artificial turf, Champion Window Field