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University of Minnesota Athletics
FieldTurf Being Installed at TCF Bank Stadium
6/11/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
The University of Minnesota has selected FieldTurf for installation at the brand-new TCF Bank Stadium that will open this fall. Although the finishing touches on the turf's installation are currently taking place, FieldTurf's selection was officially announced recently by Golden Gophers Director of Athletics Joel Maturi and FieldTurf Tarkett CEO Joe Fields. The sparkling 50,000-seat facility will officially debut on September 12 when the Gophers host Air Force.
Eight Big Ten teams will play their home games on FieldTurf this season as Minnesota joins Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Northwestern, Ohio State and Wisconsin.
"When we selected the field for TCF Bank Stadium, our goal was to install the best possible playing surface for our student-athletes,” said Maturi. “Our players tested several options and the overwhelming consensus was that FieldTurf was the best. We are proud to partner with a company that is widely considered to be the industry leader in playing surfaces."
"TCF Bank Stadium is the best on-campus football facility in the nation, and I'm very excited about the fact that the Golden Gophers will be playing on FieldTurf in our new facility,” said Minnesota Head Football Coach Tim Brewster. “Everything about TCF Bank Stadium is first-class and we couldn't be more thrilled that we will have FieldTurf as our playing surface."
“There’s no doubt that TCF Bank Stadium is a gorgeous facility, and it is quite an honor for FieldTurf to be chosen as the inaugural playing surface for this fabulous new stadium,” said Fields. “The fact that the Gophers have been playing on FieldTurf at the Metrodome, and that it was important to the university to continue to have their football team play on FieldTurf, is very much appreciated by us. Mr. Maturi, Coach Brewster and the rest of the UM athletics family know that FieldTurf provides the ultimate in both safety and playability. With eight conference stadiums, we at FieldTurf almost feel like we’ve unofficially become the official turf of the Big Ten. We won’t disappoint the Gophers or their fans.”
TCF Bank Stadium will be completed at a total cost of $288.5 million with a goal of being the finest on-campus stadium in college football. Ground was broken on TCF Bank Stadium in September, 2006, and the actual construction began in July, 2007. With a traditional horseshoe-style shape, the facility’s skeleton consist of more than 8800 tons of steel, 97 percent of which is recycled. The stadium will boast the one of the largest video boards in all of college football.
More than 60 top NCAA universities currently play their home games on FieldTurf. In addition to Big 10 schools, others include Nebraska, Texas, Kansas, Missouri, Texas Tech, Kansas State, Utah, West Virginia, Washington, Oregon, Boston College, Rutgers, Syracuse, Cincinnati and Louisville. Twenty-one of the NFL's 32 teams presently utilize FieldTurf in their stadiums and/or practice facilities. In addition, MLB's Tampa Bay Rays, Minnesota Twins and Toronto Blue Jays have FieldTurf at their respective stadiums.
The NFL Players Association released their bi-annual ranking of NFL stadium fields during a January 29 press conference in Tampa prior to the Super Bowl. Once again, the results tabbed FieldTurf as the runaway leader among all artificial turf brands. In data gathered from polling/voting of over 1500 NFL players, 40 percent of the league's Top Ten surfaces were FieldTurf fields. In addition, four of the top five and eight of the top 10 artificial turf fields in the league are FieldTurf, according to that NFLPA data.
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