A picture perfect view of Lincoln Financial Field, game field of the Philadelphia Eagles.

We met with the sod farms in 2008 and changed strategies due to the heavy load of summer concerts and other events. Starting in 2009, we resod with thick cut bermuda to start the football season and resod with thick cut bluegrass later in the fall.

The Annual Plan

Te event calendar starts to take shape in the late fall and early winter. We know we’ll have ten NFL games; seven NCAA games including Army/Navy, concerts and soccer matches. Events may be added later, so we have to be flexible, yet start planning things early. We’ll get the college schedule in February, but don’t get the NFL schedule until April. Our mid-season resodding schedule will be based on these schedules being released.

We work with a four-foot by eight-foot calendar posted on the wall and start getting thing put up on it. Everything that we do will be entered on that calendar. We need to be able to identify gaps in the schedule later in the fall that will provide the time it will take to resod.

Bermudagrass Sod

We begin our conversations with the sod producer around January for our needs throughout the year. Tis gives the grower time to prepare sites on the sod farm and acquire additional materials if needed to accommodate the dates for sodding. At this time, we’ll address delivery times for the sod; determine how many trucks will be needed for the installation to flow correctly; and consider any conflicts that could occur. We’ll review the fertilizer, growth regulators, fungicides, topdressing materials and other pertinent information to produce the best quality sod possible.

In the summer, we’ll sod our field with Bermudagrass that is 1.5-inches thick and weighs about 13 pounds per square foot. It’s grown on plastic to allow for a quick turnaround for on-field activity. Te plastic forces the roots, rhizomes and stolons to grow up to form a dense, stable base for play.

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