By Tyler Morris, CSFM
Each year in May, the National Football League (NFL) announces the specific dates for each game to be played during the upcoming season. As sports field manager at MetLife Stadium – home of the New York Giants and New York Jets – this announcement begins a planning phase for what maintenance the playing surface will need. With the unique challenge of hosting two clubs, this means that MetLife Stadium staff and I maintain the surface for 20 games a year.
Each season can bring a new set of challenges to overcome, and the 2024 season was unlike any other. Of the 20 games (22 when we include two colleges games) we had four NFL weeks in which we hosted both teams. Those weeks present the most challenges because the standard for both teams remains the same – fully painted endzones, a new midfield logo and a complete building changeover. In those situations, our team must move quickly to ensure a successful changeover.
For example, the New York Jets hosted the Houston Texans on October 31, and less than 72 hours later, on November 3, the New York Giants hosted the Washington Commanders. The changeover process began not long after the last whistle sounded on the first game and the teams cleared the field. Around midnight on November 1 our field team began scrubbing the field; and the process of driving scrubber machines over the field lasted approximately three hours. Our painters and laborers then reported to the stadium at 7 a.m. on November 1 to complete field painting, which entails preparing the stencils on the field, measuring and ensuring the accuracy of placement, painting all the dots throughout the logo, and then fully painting each endzone with the color scheme and logos requested for that week. In this instance, the Giants requested a three-color endzone to pay homage to their legacy field layout from the 1990s. That logo takes a bit longer; but in good conditions with three painters, the painting process took only eight hours to complete.
The team is a mix of union and nonunion members with two painters and 12 laborers. When the stadium switched from turf replacement to painting the end zones, our painters hit the ground running and learned how to operate the paint machines. Everyone learned how to use both the machines and aerosol. The laborers pull string and hold boards for straight lines, and are indispensable to the job. Concurrently with the people completing the on-field swap, the stadium changeover is happening as well, with a total of 35 to 40 people completing that monumental task in less than 16 hours from the end of the game the night before.
We are often asked what happens when conditions are not favorable and we are dealing with high winds, rain, snow, ice, etc. But there is no room for any part of the building to not be changed. Due to the high standards both club’s ownership groups have for successful changeovers, the field staff must follow suit. Specifically in rain events, our team works closely with meteorologists to plan the best windows to remove and repaint the field.
In situations when two games are on back-to-back days (which has occurred five times in the last two seasons) our team will first work diligently to remove the existing field logos to make way for a 40-by-170-foot tent to be built over each end zone, and a 40-by-40-foot tent to be erected over the midfield logo. Once the tents are in place, our team lays out the stencils under the tent, then completes the painting process completely protected from the elements. We can also utilize tent sides to protect the painted product from rain and wind.
For games later in the season, our stadium can also be hit with cold weather, snow and ice. In those circumstances, it is unsafe to construct tents as they may not be able to hold the weight of the snow, and the conditions are typically not safe for the tents to be built. In those situations, our team deploys field tarps that cover the entire field to ensure any snow that falls is caught by the tarps. Once the snow has eased, we shovel/plow any accumulation off the tarps to provide enough room to peel back the tarps in the painted areas and complete the paint removal or new painting as needed. If there is potential for more inclement weather following the repainting, we will take steps to protect the painted product. This could be anything from drying the paint for a few hours with blowers then covering with tarps to covering the paint with an EnkaMat that prevents the tarp from wiping away any wet paint. All measures are taken to ensure the time spent painting is not wasted.
Although plans can be made and followed completely, we occasionally need to find ways to overcome unforeseen challenges. For our last Giants game of the 2024 season against the Indianapolis Colts, I arrived at the stadium at 6 a.m. to see the midfield logo and endzones slightly washed away from rain we received over the weekend. This was completely unexpected, but my team was able to move into swift action to remedy the problem. In this case, we used synthetic turf aerosol paint to ensure the paint would dry and be safe for players without fear of any paint transfer onto clothing. This was the first time this situation had ever surfaced; however, quick thinking by all members of our team made the fix that much easier, and ensured that the field was ready for handover to the teams at the start of warmups around 10:30 a.m.
Without each part of the team working in harmony, we could not accomplish the things that we do. In September 2023, we hosted two concerts on a Thursday and Friday before rolling into two NFL games to open the season on Sunday and Monday. These changeover situations take even more careful planning and execution from multiple groups. We typically divide and conquer to ensure that we can accomplish everything. For example, as the concert flooring was removed, and as soon as the endzones and other paintable areas were uncovered, our painters jumped into action to make sure any touchups were completed with enough time to dry before warmups. For this specific changeover, the concert setups were completely removed by Saturday around 6 p.m.; the concert decking was removed overnight until completion around 2 a.m. Sunday; and the full field cleaned, repainted and set up for the NFL game by 10 a.m. Sunday.
With special attention to all the details and steps of the process, we ensured that not only were our staff members on site at the correct times, but that our subcontractors who complete the turf cleaning were on site at the right time as well. Following the game on Sunday night we rolled right into preparing for a second game in the same number of days, bringing its own set of challenges as we dealt with rain and high winds trying to prepare for the Jets home opener.
Overall, our stadium changeovers have been successful, and I attribute that to my team’s willingness to work in all conditions and work together for one common goal. Without the team of people around me at MetLife Stadium, we could not accomplish the tight back-to-back events we do.
Tyler Morris, CSFM, is sports field manager, facility operations and events, MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, New Jersey.
