Growing Green Grass, June 8, 2013
EXCERPTS:
Certainly much debate is around synthetic being able to sustain higher amounts of concerts, monster trucks, etc. But with these multiple events, synthetic fields are failing at higher rates as well. And their replacement cost is much higher than grass field replacement costs.
However, for grass fields, the cost numbers for maintenance decreases exponentially when additional fields are added.
Construction Costs
- Synthetic Professional: $1,000,000 (Professionally built, no shortcuts on base construction, fibers, infills, etc)
- Synthetic, Practice/ Tournament: $850,000 (Shortcuts on base construction, fibers, infill, etc.. still a good field)
- Natural Grass Professional*: $600,000 (Professionally built, no shortcuts)
- *: 10″ sand profile, drainage, irrigation, sodded.
- *: Creates a field that is rain-out proof
- Natural Grass Practice/ Tournament*: $350,000
- *: Practice/ Tournament: 6″ sand profile, drainage, irrigation, sodded
- *: Creates a field that is rain-out proof
- Natural Grass Youth Field*: $150,000
- *: Field using native soil, graded level, irrigation, no drainage#
- #: Fact: This is the majority of all Parks/ Youth grass fields in the USA
Maintenance Costs:
- Synthetic (Either construction): $10,000/ year*
- *: equipment for grooming, infill, minor repairs, etc. Maintenance is simple.
- Natural Grass Professional: $40,000/ year*
- *: Average over for equipment, supplies (fertilizer, seed, etc), water, etc
- Natural Grass Practice/ Tournament: $30,000/ year*
- *: Average over for equipment, supplies (fertilizer, seed, etc), water, etc
- Natural Grass Youth Field: $30,000/ year*
- *: Average for paying landscape contractor to mow, seed, fertilizer, etc
Labor Costs:
- Synthetic Professional: $30,000*
- *: Non-skilled, full time to deal with clean up/ set up/ grooming/ etc
- Synthetic Practice/ Tournament: $20,000/ year*
- *: Non-skilled, part time to deal with clean up/ set up/ grooming/ etc
- Natural Grass Professional: $75,000*
- *: 1 full time, skilled, 1 part time skilled person for growing natural grass on 1 field (or up to 3 fields)
- Natural Grass Practice/ Tournament: $45,000*
- *: 1 full time, skilled person for growing natural grass on 1 field (or up to 2 fields)
- Natural Grass Youth Field: $20,000*
- *: Part time, non skilled labor for clean up, set up, etc.
Replacement Costs:
- Synthetic: $500,000 after 8-10 years
- Natural Grass: No need from “regular” use*
- *: concerts, monster trucks, etc not “regular use”
Total Over 10 Years:
- Synthetic Professional: $1,900,000
- Synthetic Practice/ Tournament: $1,700,000
- Natural Grass, Professional: $1,750,000
- Natural Grass, Practice/Tournament: $1,100,000
- Natural Grass, Youth: $650,000