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BSU football turf wears out before warranty

Seth Slabaugh
seths@muncie.gannett.com

MUNCIE – When Ball State University's Scheumann Stadium underwent a $13.6 million renovation in 2007, it was reported that the expected life span of the football venue's new artificial turf was 10 years.

On Tuesday, less than eight years later, the university opened bids to replace the turf, the warranty on which doesn't expire until June of this year.

The existing turf is a product of FieldTurf, which last year settled a fraud lawsuit against its fiber supplier. The suit complained that FieldTurf built and sold to customers more than 100 fields that were prematurely degrading and 20 other fields that contained widespread visual defects.

"The customers who received fields built with defective fiber — primarily high schools, colleges and universities whose football fields, soccer fields and other sports fields are built using artificial turf systems — are looking to FieldTurf to repair and, in many cases, fully replace their failing fields," the company reported in the lawsuit.

On Tuesday, Ball State opened bids to replace the artificial turf at Scheumann. FieldTurf submitted the apparent low bid:

• FieldTurf USA, Auburn Hills, Mich., $386,181.

• SPRINTURF, Atlanta, Ga., $410,000

• Shaw Sports Turf, Calhoun, Ga., $441,098.

• AstroTurf, Dalton, Ga., $448,849.

• Maumee Bay Turf Center, Oregon, Ohio, $539,000.

Ball State, which estimated the replacement cost at $450,000, took the bids under advisement.

"By choosing to invest in quality, safety and performance rather than low bid pricing, FieldTurf has always helped to ensure a successful future for your athletes, your program, your facilities and your financing," the company says in its advertising.

When the current Scheumann turf was installed, The Star Press reported that its life expectancy was at least 10 years. The turf consists of synthetic grass fibers surrounded and stabilized by "infill," a mixture of sand and rubber granules similar to the soil found in natural grass.

Asked why Ball State did not take legal action against FieldTurf for breach of warranty, like various other schools have done, spokeswoman Joan Todd said: "We have had two independent consultants look at the turf in recent years and report that it has sustained 'normal' wear and tear. We did learn that the company that provided the turf has been involved in some lawsuits. Our understanding is that those were installations at high schools, and might not have been the same grade and quality of turf that we purchased. We have had some seams repaired on the turf in the past, which again, the consultants defined as 'normal wear.' "

In its advertising, FieldTurf says it is not uncommon for its fields to last more than 10 years, even when used non-stop.

The lawsuit against its supplier alleges that FieldTurf was fraudulently induced to buy a cheaper, less durable fiber during a time period including 2007, when the Scheumann turf was installed. The defective fiber lacked enough ultraviolet stabilizers to prevent loss of tensile strength, increasing its premature disintegration during the warranty period, according to the lawsuit.

Darren Gill, vice president of global marketing at FieldTurf, did not return phone calls from The Star Press last week or this week. Blake Centers, a FieldTurf representative from Chicago who signed in at a pre-bid conference at BSU, did not return a phone call or email on Tuesday.

A couple of days after Forbes published a story about lawsuits brought against FieldTurf by municipalities and schools across the U.S., the company told the business magazine in an email: "It is inaccurate and highly misleading to suggest that a FieldTurf needing to be replaced is a common occurrence ... FieldTurf has more than 5,000 fields in the U.S. and only 3 percent have had to be replaced prior to warranty. In fact, 250 of our fields are more than a decade old — meaning that significantly more fields outlast their warranty by at least two years than need to be replaced."

Todd said the the turf at Scheumann has "fulfilled its useful life, and it's time to replace it. The bid specifications ask for bidders to define how many years their product would be guaranteed, and that will be one factor we consider in which company wins the contract."

FieldTurf's featured installations in Indiana include Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the Indianapolis Colts, and Notre Dame Stadium, home of the University of Notre Dame.

In 2013, Ball State's field hockey facility was upgraded with FieldTurf Hockey Speed.

Brad Morrison, CEO at Maumee Bay Turf Center, one of FieldTurf's competitors, told The Star Press that 8 years is the standard warranty for artificial turf.

"They fell short by months, not years," Morrison said of FieldTurf's warranty at Scheumann Stadium. "That's kind of splitting hairs. It got them eight seasons."

Contact Seth Slabaugh at (765) 213-5834