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Snapdragon Stadium got new Latitude 36 this week.
Will a new attitude accompany it? That remains to be seen, though stadium officials are confident last year’s field issues have been resolved.
Rolls and rolls of Latitude 36 sod were trucked down from Escondido’s American Sod Farms for the two-day installation of Snapdragon’s new field.
“This is our normal January install after we have a number of dirt events,” said Mike Kerns, Snapdragon Stadium’s director of field and grounds. “It’s a pretty straightforward process. Once Monster Jam and Supercross load out, it takes about three days to get the field back to us.”
The new field has 4 1/2 weeks to get established before the March 1 debut of San Diego FC, the city’s Major League Soccer team in its inaugural season.
“Plenty of time,” Kerns said.
Local soccer fans — and San Diego State football fans — may be skeptical until they see for themselves.
The Snapdragon field was much-maligned last year, beginning when it flooded in March during an international women’s soccer tournament. Field markings from San Diego State football games still being visible during Wave matches.
The biggest issue, however, came in September, when the field was re-sodded with Kentucky bluegrass that never took. It looked terrible on TV, especially when sand was kicked up on seemingly each play during football games and turf came up during soccer matches.
A third field, this one with a variety called TiffTuf, was installed late last year. There were no complaints when Syracuse and Washington State took the field for the DirecTV Holiday Bowl.
“It wasn’t a great four-week stretch, but you go through it and you learn,” said Kerns, who has a degree in Turf and Turfgrass Management from Rutgers. His experience includes more than a decade in the Pacific Northwest and East Coast as a director of grounds.
There are several new measures being taken this season to ensure the best possible field conditions. Among them:
• An estimated 50 events will be played at Snapdragon this year. That includes nearly three dozen San Diego FC, San Diego Wave and international soccer matches, eight SDSU football games (six home games, two scrimmages), a couple of Aztecs men’s and women’s soccer matches and a handful of concerts.
San Diego FC’s 19 home games have been mitigated by the San Diego Legion rugby team moving to USD’s Torero Stadium.
The Snapdragon schedule has been changed this year to block out additional time between events.
“We’re adding maintenance windows for my crew to be able to come in here and do what they need to do,” Kerns said.
Snapdragon won’t host regular-season soccer matches the day after a football game. This will help avoid situations where an Aztecs logo, say, is visible while Wave players are running up and down the field.
• Grow lights have been purchased that aid recovery during fall and winter months as well as low-light days. The lights, currently en route on a boat from The Netherlands, will be here in March.
• The field will be used for an average of four soccer matches per month. The busiest month is May (eight), though the situation becomes more problematic in August when SDSU’s football season starts.
A new field is penciled in for August or September, depending on how well this one wears.
Putting in bluegrass last year turned out to be a poor choice.
“We had a short window to make a decision, and we had to use what was available to us,” said Kerns, noting Latitude 36 was not available. “That was bluegrass, and it just didn’t hold up to the quality that we needed it to hold up to. It was safe and playable. The metrics that we have internally, it always met that. It just wasn’t aesthetically pleasing.”
There is a better option this year. A sod farm in Palm Desert has been contracted to supply Snapdragon with a variety called Ready Play Grass, a Bermuda that can be used virtually as soon as it is installed.
“We didn’t make the financial commitment to make that readily available to us (last year),” Kerns said. “Now, we are.”
• Approximately 9,000 square feet of artificial turf is being installed around the playing surface to reduce wear and tear.
“SDFC has put in pitch boxes that they’re selling,” Kerns said. “It gives it a place where people can stand that’s not on the grass all the time.
“It’s a unique system from FieldTurf where if we ever need to expand the playing surface for an event, these are artificial panels that we can pull up.”
American Sod Farms also has grown Latitude 36 for Banc of California Stadium in Los Angeles, home of the MLS’ LAFC, so there’s every reason to believe SDFC will be comfortable on the grass.
How it holds up with as much use as the facility gets is a question that will be answered in the coming weeks and months.
“This building is only three years old,” Kern said. “We’re going to keep working out kinks and getting better. We’re going to take some lumps. We learned what our threshold is. As you’re going through it, it’s not a great moment.
“It’s not great to have your name and reputation (questioned), but it’s OK. It was one of the more rewarding years of my career growing grass. I learned a lot about myself and I learned a lot of what my team can withstand.
“We’re here to make sure all of our tenants are taken care of. Sometimes you have to go through these things to learn.”
Originally Published:
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