The Cheez-It Bowl hosted the Air Force Falcons versus the Washington State Cougars on December 27, on a new natural turfgrass field.
A week prior to the game, West Coast Turf installed 90,000 square feet of its 1-inch-thick overseeded Bandera Bermuda sod directly on top of Chase Field’s new artificial turf baseball field. Installation took two days, and a layer of polyethylene plastic sheeting was put in between the artificial surface and the natural sod. The sod is thick-cut and weighed approximately 15 pounds per square foot so that rooting will not be a factor with such a short timeframe. The weight will give the sod its stability.
Chase Field’s artificial surface is one that involves concrete curbing so that using artificial turf to cover the baseball skins was not an option for a football field conversion. Sod was the obvious solution.
This is not the first time West Coast Turf has been called in to place natural turfgrass over artificial turf. It has done the same process several times at Quest/CenturyLink Field in Seattle. West Coast Turf has also regularly put natural turfgrass “overlay” fields on top of other natural fields when time constraints do not allow for turf removal between important games.
Following the Cheez-It Bowl, the natural turfgrass was removed and partially donated to Cartwright Elementary School in Phoenix.
West Coast Turf is a full-service sod, stolonization and hydroseeding company with offices throughout California and Arizona, and headquarters in Palm Desert, Calif.