thx 4 sharing the pic MB

Can we have natural grass in Memorial Stadium now? Please?!

:gobears:

MoragaBear;842457822 said:

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Turf's almost in and looking good

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ahh, thanks MB for a fine looksee at where the rotting corpse of women's [whooopsy, fixed it: NOT lacrosse, but -->] Field Hockey haunts campus.

# stir, stir.

Wow, Will the team use this for spring practice?

Wow Bowles Hall is where you want to be if you want to be the Daily Cal football dude/dudette.

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Thanks for sharing all the pics! I like it. I hope they put all sorts of Cal signage (football and other) on the outside cement walls.

ferCALgm2;842457933 said:

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Thanks for sharing all the pics! I like it. I hope they put all sorts of Cal signage (football and other) on the outside cement walls.

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It is a CONCRETE wall not a cement wall (ok, ok, I admit it, I am an engineer!!).

Hope it's safe

Thanks for the pics. Despite the negative aesthetics from street level, I believe the added parking will attract more people to events at the Simpson Center which will go a long way to help pay the bills.

Thanks for the pix. I have to say the street view without the fence around it is an upgrade. It could have been nicer but it doesn't look THAT bad...just missed an opportunity to do better. I do agree however killing the view of Bowles was a bad.

Gotta wait for it to green.

Why'd they put the scoreboard/clock there at the south end obscuring the grand entree? Why not the north end or the NW corner?

joe yaks;842458098 said:

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Why'd they put the scoreboard/clock there at the south end obscuring the grand entree? Why not the north end or the NW corner?

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Good point. My guess is the power connections are all on the south side.

My god, they are using ASTROTURF? The oldest and worst of the turfs? Even the casings look cheap. Sad that our athletes will be practicing on that crap.

oskirules;842458111 said:

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Good point. My guess is the power connections are all on the south side.

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I think that this is correct. The scoreboard in the old Maxwell Family Field was essentially in the same location.

SAHPC - check
Memorial Stadium renovation - check
Maxwell Field redo for football - check

Not much facilities excuse for the football program anymore.

teknofreek;842458244 said:

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SAHPC - check
Memorial Stadium renovation - check
Maxwell Field redo for football - check

Not much facilities excuse for the football program anymore.

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Not to mention the Haas Pavilion upgrades. Athletic department is getting sh.. done.

grandmastapoop;842458222 said:

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My god, they are using ASTROTURF? The oldest and worst of the turfs? Even the casings look cheap. Sad that our athletes will be practicing on that crap.

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http://www.astroturf.com/products/

is that not whats in cms ?

This practice field looks like a bad idea. Playing high intensity sports a few feet from concrete has the potential to end in so many injuries, especially on that crappy turf. I hope this is only being used for conditioning and drills and not contact sports.

Give this back to field hockey and have them practice on Witter.

Went by it, looks great and I'm glad football has this.

The field hockey turf is being installed on the upper Hearst parking structure. I didn't take a picture. A big crane was " dropping" a the last of the rolls of turf onto the roof on Friday.

going4roses;842458322 said:

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is that not whats in cms ?

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No. AstroTurf bid low with "improved" competing product, angling for next replacements of campus turfs. Only one source, so a grain of salt deserved.

Why wouldn't we use the same turf for practice thst our games are played on?

Unless there is something new that is safer and better?

Anyone have insight into this?

NVBear78;842458376 said:

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Why wouldn't we use the same turf for practice thst our games are played on?

Unless there is something new that is safer and better?

Anyone have insight into this?

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There are those who like to have different surfaces, typically natural and artificial, for the benefit of preparation-purposes. I recall at least one team in an article who not only did that with their practice field, but also crowned it a bit more to the extreme, as seen on some competitor's game fields...

Could just be a matter of having a good deal at the moment.

NVBear78;842458376 said:

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Why wouldn't we use the same turf for practice thst our games are played on?

Unless there is something new that is safer and better?

Anyone have insight into this?

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It could be that the artificial surface in CMS requires a deeper subsurface and drainage system that what is feasible on top of the Maxwell Family Field parking garage. And it may be that the AstroTurf system can be used on top of the parking garage within the limits of what the structure can handle in terms of supporting a field on the roof.

Any engineers care to comment?

Are we taking away too many athletic fields from the general undergraduate population? Where can regular Cal undergraduates go these days to toss a frisbee or play a pickup game of soccer or touch football?

That's another area where Cal is behind. Our recreational facilities are bad.

can someone enlighten me as to why we need a practice field if:

1) It's so close to CMS
2) It's open-air
3) We're keeping turf inside CMS

Only thing I can come up with so far is having more space to run more drills within the allowed practice times, and having a space to practice while something is going on within CMS.

grandmastapoop;842458222 said:

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My god, they are using ASTROTURF? The oldest and worst of the turfs? Even the casings look cheap. Sad that our athletes will be practicing on that crap.

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It was great on kleeberger, if it's the same stuff. But it also apparently caused a bunch of cancers for lifetimers on the phillies. that was in high heat, though, so who knows. at least it's not crumb rubber infill from tires, which has led to multiple cancers of goalies around the country, and at UW, where the problem was first noticed. also, studies have shown a HUGE increase in knee injuries at the college and pro football levels on the infill stuff. girls apparently don't get hurt as often, so it's gotta be the heavy dudes with so much torque and the turf grabbing the cleats with no give. nike has an infill product that only costs about 20k more and is supposed to not cause cancer. it's made of old shoes. anyway, it seems so crazy to use any of this stuff at a place like Cal, where we're supposed to be ahead of the game in scientific research. it's disappointing, really. these fields are going in all over the country because they're low maintenance. just watch what happens to health in 20 years. i wish we could be like the EU in virtually all aspects of consumer health. test FIRST, then approve. not in the good ole U S and A.

bearsandgiants;842458524 said:

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It was great on kleeberger, if it's the same stuff. But it also apparently caused a bunch of cancers for lifetimers on the phillies. that was in high heat, though, so who knows. at least it's not crumb rubber infill from tires, which has led to multiple cancers of goalies around the country, and at UW, where the problem was first noticed. also, studies have shown a HUGE increase in knee injuries at the college and pro football levels on the infill stuff. girls apparently don't get hurt as often, so it's gotta be the heavy dudes with so much torque and the turf grabbing the cleats with no give. nike has an infill product that only costs about 20k more and is supposed to not cause cancer. it's made of old shoes. anyway, it seems so crazy to use any of this stuff at a place like Cal, where we're supposed to be ahead of the game in scientific research. it's disappointing, really. these fields are going in all over the country because they're low maintenance. just watch what happens to health in 20 years. i wish we could be like the EU in virtually all aspects of consumer health. test FIRST, then approve. not in the good ole U S and A.

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15 years ago kleeberger was not great. Far from it in my opinion. From personal experience, that place was a rats nest. The stitching was coming up, it was hot, and the padding wasn't considtent. I hated that field each time I had to do workouts on it. If it was updated in the last 15 I take it back, but I had not heard of any changes since then.

Now, everything you brought up concerning issues with the infill should be researched as there are some concerning trends as you've noted. But that field was crap.