TCF Field Update

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CJTGopher

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Just an FYI on the field. The Vikes turfgrass and grounds manager has been working at TCF all day and he has been tweeting too. You can follow him @wpturf. Said the field is great and that there is little to no ice. They lost about 500 lbs. of rubber infill during the brooming but it has already been replaced by topdressing. He also tweeted shots of them painting the NFL hash marks; the only paint that will put on the field for those concerned. Covers have arrived and will be going down tomorrow with heat just to make sure any ice on the field is gone. The fact there is little ice right now means the field is not holding any moisture and the chance of any refreezing will be zero. The players will be playing on an excellent surface on Monday.

Sometime you just have to let the professionals do their job.
 

All that whining from the Bears/Vikings proves to be just that whining.

Glad the Bank is going to come off looking great. Everybody should be proud of getting this stadium ready so quickly.
 

97alumni said:
All that whining from the Bears/Vikings proves to be just that whining.

Glad the Bank is going to come off looking great. Everybody should be proud of getting this stadium ready so quickly.
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Most of the whining is coming from Bears players and fans. The latest results of the poll on the Chicago Tribune website has 61% against having the game at TCF Field because it's too dangerous for those delicate football players. I guess that game last week against the Pats made made many in Chicago afraid of snow.
 

GoForGold said:
Most of the whining is coming from Bears players and fans. The latest results of the poll on the Chicago Tribune website has 61% against having the game at TCF Field because it's too dangerous for those delicate football players. I guess that game last week against the Pats made made many in Chicago afraid of snow.
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Imagine that, Bears fans/players complaining about a poor field. For most of this year their field has looked more like a pasture than a football field.
 

GoForGold said:
Most of the whining is coming from Bears players and fans. The latest results of the poll on the Chicago Tribune website has 61% against having the game at TCF Field because it's too dangerous for those delicate football players. I guess that game last week against the Pats made made many in Chicago afraid of snow.
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Plenty of Vikings players were whining, too. I think it's pretty safe to say the people voting in that poll just want the game to be moved to Chicago or Indianapolis, regardless of TCF's field conditions, because it would benefit the Bears.
 


CJT... Thanks for the post....I'm looking forward to the game(at home w/fireplace, gin, snacks and maroon/gold) should be great Tv. Minnesota Hats off to thee.
 

Wonder if the bo-bo's at KFAN will recant their ripping of TCF Bank Stadium for not having heating coils. PA and Burrito were the main culprits.
 

CJTGopher said:
Just an FYI on the field. The Vikes turfgrass and grounds manager has been working at TCF all day and he has been tweeting too. You can follow him @wpturf. Said the field is great and that there is little to no ice. They lost about 500 lbs. of rubber infill during the brooming but it has already been replaced by topdressing. He also tweeted shots of them painting the NFL hash marks; the only paint that will put on the field for those concerned. Covers have arrived and will be going down tomorrow with heat just to make sure any ice on the field is gone. The fact there is little ice right now means the field is not holding any moisture and the chance of any refreezing will be zero. The players will be playing on an excellent surface on Monday.

Sometime you just have to let the professionals do their job.
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Thanks for the update!! Could you now please inform that *&^!#*&^!#*&^!#*&^!#*&^!#*&^!#bag Schefter and the rest of the national media that this field will be in better condition than Soldier field would have been?

I can't stand the moaning I'm hearing about it.
 




DarrenTheGreek said:
Wonder if the bo-bo's at KFAN will recant their ripping of TCF Bank Stadium for not having heating coils. PA and Burrito were the main culprits.
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Burrito has always been an idiot.

But PA.. I expected way more class. He'll eat his words.
 


CJTGopher said:
Just an FYI on the field. The Vikes turfgrass and grounds manager has been working at TCF all day and he has been tweeting too. You can follow him @wpturf. Said the field is great and that there is little to no ice. They lost about 500 lbs. of rubber infill during the brooming but it has already been replaced by topdressing. He also tweeted shots of them painting the NFL hash marks; the only paint that will put on the field for those concerned. Covers have arrived and will be going down tomorrow with heat just to make sure any ice on the field is gone. The fact there is little ice right now means the field is not holding any moisture and the chance of any refreezing will be zero. The players will be playing on an excellent surface on Monday.

Sometime you just have to let the professionals do their job.
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FWIW, having been down on the field (I'm not defending the whining by any means, but some perspective) for the Iowa game, the turf was extremely slippery and hard as a rock to walk on. I know that the "well, the Gophers did it, the Vikes should be fine" argument and the "The Vikes played on the rock-hard Metrodome turf for all those years" remain valid, but given how much faster the NFL game is, and given how much colder and how much more condensation the teams would have had to deal with if they didn't have the pros (the guys mentioned by the OP) working on the field, I can see how it would have been dangerous.
 

Pssst.

Football, in general, is dangerous.
 



I can't wait for Monday night when the national media will be full of praise for the job done by the U and the Vikings to get this game transplanted to TCF. Meanwhile the local media d bags will be left looking like the asses they are for their comments.
 

CJTGopher said:
I can't wait for Monday night when the national media will be full of praise for the job done by the U and the Vikings to get this game transplanted to TCF. Meanwhile the local media d bags will be left looking like the asses they are for their comments.
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Agreed ...because the field was cold already...there was no ice. And the team did an awrsome job in prep. Can they filter out the rubber pellets and then go sprinkle the back on the field?

ESPN has gone with the frozen tundra angle. Even though it won't be.

Thanks for the @wpturf tip. He posted one awesome pic (and a bunch of others) of him in the brush machine" scraping" the field. My term...no clue what is actually called.

GM
 

gophermartin said:
Agreed ...because the field was cold already...there was no ice. And the team did an awrsome job in prep. Can they filter out the rubber pellets and then go sprinkle the back on the field?

ESPN has gone with the frozen tundra angle. Even though it won't be.

Thanks for the @wpturf tip. He posted one awesome pic (and a bunch of others) of him in the brush machine" scraping" the field. My term...no clue what is actually called.

GM
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They have already replaced the rubber that was removed. I believe if they allow the rubber to melt out of the snow they can reuse it. Probably won't be done in this case. @wpturf tweeted that they needed to replace about 500 lbs of rubber, which is really not that much at all over an entire field.
 

It think its cool that ESPN is advertising a "Frozen Tundra" type game. This game is going to an unforgettable event, no doubt about it.
 



CJTGopher said:
They have already replaced the rubber that was removed. I believe if they allow the rubber to melt out of the snow they can reuse it. Probably won't be done in this case. @wpturf tweeted that they needed to replace about 500 lbs of rubber, which is really not that much at all over an entire field.
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I'm fascinated by this for some reason. What does a 50 lb bag cost? And how is it spread evenly across the field?

Thx.

GM
 

gophermartin said:
I'm fascinated by this for some reason. What does a 50 lb cost? And how is it spread evenly across the field?

Thx.

GM
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I believe they have a spreader for the rubber pellets. Kind of like a riding mower.
 

Ski U Master said:
I believe they have a spreader for the rubber pellets. Kind of like a riding mower.
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Hmm I bet my lawn spreader would work. Thanks.

Wonder how many bags they use during a regular season. It got in my shoes when I was on the field with my kids after the nw game. That must be a lot of the cost of regular mtc. Please correct me if wrong.

Also read they can" scrub" the paint off of Ford field. I assume they will scrub the new hash marks off too in the spring or summer.
 

Can't imagine the rubber is all that costly. 50lb bag is maybe $20. Maybe more, could be $50. They spread it with a topdress the same way a golf course spreads sand on their putting surfaces. This make the application very uniform, they then use a variety of drag mats and brooms to work the rubber into the field.

I can't speak for TCF but the guy in charge of the field at UMD said in five years they have not had to add any rubber. Not sure if this is standard practice or not. The field at UMD certainly gets more use than TCF.
 

Just watch the time-lapsed video again and it was noticeable that they left the snow on the playing surface for as long as they could. They knew the surface under the snow was good and the snow was going to keep it that way so they kept from removing the snow on the field as long as possible keeping in mind that they probably wanted to heat the surface for a couple days. Bottom line is right from the beginning they knew exactly what they were doing with that field.
 

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