Will be a great addition and will also help drop one of the many barriers of recruiting upper echelon guys to Knoxville for baseball.
This isn’t your granddads turf. This stuff is top of the line... no bad hops. No rainouts. No snow outs.
There will be costs to patch it in the higher traffic areas. I do hope they keep a real dirt mound. Although the artificial mounds have came a long way as well.
The newer fields use a cork layer rather than rubber, which lessens the heat, but there can be as much as a 20-25 degree warmer temps in those first August weeks of high school football when compared to grass. It is so hot you can feel it reflecting back to you on the sidelines.
Ive coached football on 2 of these surfaces. Alcoas is a few years old and is miserably hot. The new maryville turf is a lot cooler. Shouldn't matter for a season that wont be used later than the weekend before memorial day though.
It also should be noted that the grounds crew has really struggled with the surface the last few years.
Yup. Also, I don't see why a dirt mound would be a problem. Considering it being covered, it shouldn't be a problem.
Yeah I don’t know which one I play on but it’s miserable on a hot day. Doesn’t even really have to be that hot, if the sun is hitting hard
Still depends on the company as to which they use. The cork is much cooler. There are also additional things they do now that can help keep the temps lower and in some areas actually increase the temp to assist with snow.