On the last Friday in September, before a capacity crowd, Sauk Centre’s (MN) football team played on the school’s new field — becoming one of the state’s smallest schools to move to artificial turf. “We do budget cuts every year and it hurts, [and] I’m going to spend how much money on an artificial field?” said school board chair Ann Mitchell, who agonized over her vote, but finally backed the new field as part of a $2 million sports facilities upgrade.
By the end of this year, the FieldTurf company — which has installed the playing or practice fields for 21 of the National Football League’s 32 teams — will have installed its 60th artificial turf field at colleges and high schools in Minnesota, many at public schools where budget woes for education are a daily fact of life. Many schools, after wincing at the initial costs, are opting for the fields and arguing that the artificial surfaces can better absorb bad weather and allow multiple sports and even gym classes to use them daily without noticeable wear and tear.
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