Driving down 471 I look to my right and see Newport's new field, then look left and it looks like Bellevue is in the process of getting a new field.

Part of an athletic complex upgrade. 

https://nkytribune.com/2024/10/bellevue-school-board-approves-8-4-million-project-to-upgrade-high-school-athletic-facilities/

On 3/31/2025 at 7:55 PM, JUGGSPORTS said:

Part of an athletic complex upgrade. 

https://nkytribune.com/2024/10/bellevue-school-board-approves-8-4-million-project-to-upgrade-high-school-athletic-facilities/

From the article, with Bellevue adding turf, every high school in N. Ky. will be playing on turf next year. Dayton and Bellevue were the last two grass fields and both will have turf this coming year.

With all this rain, will the stadium be under water sometime this week? I sure hope not, as I can see that delaying the finish time. In 1997 the flood water were just a few feet under the crossbars.

The river is supposed to peak at almost the same height as 1997. I drove down under 471 and the creek is about 4ft from the top of the creek wall.

From Bellevue Independent Schools.

Looks good, but it's a shame to see what was one of if not the last grass field in NKY now have turf.

I personally am not a fan of turf at all.  

17 minutes ago, New Colonel said:

Looks good, but it's a shame to see what was one of if not the last grass field in NKY now have turf.

I personally am not a fan of turf at all.  

With all the obvious benefits are there negatives you feel offset them.

7 minutes ago, Oldercoach said:

With all the obvious benefits are there negatives you feel offset them.

To a degree yes, but it's more expensive over the course of it's life to maintain.

 

And I wouldn't be surprised if in 20ish years, there will be commercials on TV about class action lawsuits about cancers that could be traced to extended exposure to synthetic turf fields, call for your free legal analysis to see if you qualify for a cash settlement.

1 hour ago, New Colonel said:

To a degree yes, but it's more expensive over the course of it's life to maintain.

 

And I wouldn't be surprised if in 20ish years, there will be commercials on TV about class action lawsuits about cancers that could be traced to extended exposure to synthetic turf fields, call for your free legal analysis to see if you qualify for a cash settlement.

Have heard they can be excruciatingly hot during the dog days of August.

1 hour ago, New Colonel said:

To a degree yes, but it's more expensive over the course of it's life to maintain.

1 hour ago, Colonels_Wear_Blue said:

What are you talking about?  Turf lasts about 10 years.  It costs 500k or so to replace. So, you're saying it costs over 50k a year to maintain grass field?

And that's not including turf maintenance that's supposed to be done which most schools completely neglect, which could open the door to lawsuits when injuries happen on improperly maintained fields.

 

28 minutes ago, New Colonel said:

What are you talking about?  Turf lasts about 10 years.  It costs 500k or so to replace. So, you're saying it costs over 50k a year to maintain grass field?

And that's not including turf maintenance that's supposed to be done which most schools completely neglect, which could open the door to lawsuits when injuries happen on improperly maintained fields.

Okay, I can get on board with the proper maintenance caveat. Definitely should be done.

Turf Field:
Replacing a turf field costs about $600K. Modern turf lasts 15 years if maintained correctly (not 10 year...10 years old data from outdated products), with annual maintenance costs around $5K. About $4K of that $5K maintenance is the cost of watering the field.

So $600K + (15 x $5K) = $675K every 15 years.

Grass Field:
Professionally installed fescue sod goes for about $1.90 square foot, and it's about $2.75 square foot for professionally installed Bermuda grass. Average grass area for a high school football stadium, which includes the entire infield of a track, is usually about 81,000 square feet. So resodding a grass field with normal fescue sod costs about $154K, and costs $222K for Bermuda grass.  Properly maintained fields should be fertilized monthly during months with above-freezing temperatures...call that 8 months a year. Professional fertilization costs range $500-$1000 monthly, so let's go mid-range there, $750...so $6,000 annually. Properly maintained fields should be aerated twice yearly. That's about another $600 a pop, for $1200 annual costs. The field should also be seeded with a slit-seeder at least twice yearly for each season the field is in use...so if a field is being used both in spring and fall, then that's two seedings at about $3500 a pop, so that's $7K annually. Gotta water that grass...add in another $1,500 annually. Gotta mow it too...we'll say weekly mowings from mid-April through mid-November, so that's 30 weeks, call it $200 a cut, so that's $6000. Striping a field...that typically costs about $800 for the initial layout of a football field with yard numbers, center and sideline hashes. Add in another $300 if you need layout for soccer and lacrosse. So that's $1.1K. Re-paint costs about $200 for football lines only, and more like $500 for a full re-paint with of the yardlines, yard numbers, and hashes. And re-paint of the soccer/lacrosse lines is another $150. I can't think of many times where you need to re-paint only the football markings and not the others. So let's call a re-paint $650. Assume at least one of those a month, August through November...so that's $1.1K for the initial paint plus $2.6K for four re-paints...so that's $3.7 annually for striping a field (assuming you don't need additional striping in the spring.

So $154K + [15 x ($6K + $1.2K + $7K + $1.5K + $6K + $3.7K)] = $535K every 15 years.

Aaaaaand talk to someone who has graduated from the turf management program in UK's College of Agriculture and ask what the max number of athletic programs should have use of any one single grass-surface field in order to be able to maintain it correctly. The answer: two athletic programs. So if you want proper maintenance, you better not plan on having boys soccer, girls soccer, and football all using the field. And you definitely better not let any middle school leagues use the field. Or a lacrosse team. Because then you aren't going to be able to maintain a proper level of natural grass turf to insure protection when athletes fall to the ground and to insure that the ground will get too slippery with mud.  And if you have more than a couple of sports programs competing on a field in the fall, then we all know that there's going to end up being a nearly annual regiment of having to lay sod because the entire center of the field has turned to mud.

3 hours ago, Oldercoach said:

Have heard they can be excruciatingly hot during the dog days of August.

My daughter said some of the girls cleats started melting when they played on turf in July.  I assume August would be similar. Turf can be 40+ degrees hotter than the ambient temperature.  Aka dangerous if not life threatening to play on.  That said the pros probably outweigh the cons for high schools that need them to run football, and soccer.

Cost aside, I remember playing at Newport Stadium and Gilligan Stadium in October when it was literally brown concrete. Good job Bellevue. If it wasn’t cost effective they wouldn’t be doing it.