relationship with UNC Athletics and with Carrick, having worked on multiple projects including Kenan’s original transition to synthetic turf and the temporary transitions to grass for international soccer games over the past two summers.
Te initial discussion centered on the early spring timing and what turfgrass variety Price would have available for a 67,000 square feet installation of the company’s proprietary GameOnGrass®. Te decision was Tahoma 31 Bermudagrass. Carrick says, “We have Latitude 36® on most of our other fields, but we had been watching Tahoma 31’s performance for several NFL teams. We talked with other field managers using it in our local region with similar growing conditions and got good feedback about it.”
The Conversion Process Carrick reports, “When tasked with converting to a synthetic turf field, we collaborated with Chad to do it in such a way that if it ever went to grass again we could do the conversion back as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible. Price adds, “We left components of the natural grass field we were removing in place if we anticipated they would remain functional if used again and that leaving them would have no negative impact on the new field.” Tey made some good decisions back in 2019.
Digging into the removal process revealed the components left in place were fully functional.
Carrick says, “We left the major bones of the main irrigation system in place, the wiring and such. We had installed HDPE irrigation line in 2019 when we made the conversion to synthetic. We use big gun irrigation down each side to irrigate the body of the field and installed six Hunter ST irrigation heads.” Price adds, “We did upgrade the irrigation system booster pump. Tey use reclaimed water from Orange Water and Sewer Authority (OWASA) on all their athletic fields. Tey upgraded the water supply system coming into Kenan Stadium and the booster pump for it to bring in the reclaimed water more efficiently.”
Price noted there’s been quite an evolution of the cameras they place around the field over the last six years, so they made a more permanent conduit installation for them than the field had previously.
Carrick says, “We debated leaving the existing sand in 2019, but opted to remove it. We installed 3,000 tons of new rootzone mix, 90 percent sand and 10 percent sphagnum peat, and knew we’d made the right decision. After that profile was laser graded, Chad’s crews installed 67,000 square feet of GameOnGrass® Tahoma 31 sod.”
Removal of the synthetic surface is underway.
Te first step was to remove all the old synthetic turf. Next came the removal of approximately 3,000 tons of the gravel base. Price says, “Te base material that had been left in place was in good shape and the drainage system that had been upgraded in 2015 was fully functional and draining.” Next, they reinstalled the concrete curb to create a barrier between the natural grass area of the field and the synthetic turf area.
Te crew laser grades the newly installed soil profile in preparation for the sod installation.
18 TPI Turf News July/August 2025
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