Busy turf

[ArmantiWaterSafety]

I like the idea of diff color pellets, but baffled why The Citadel had new turf and it was the most beautifully perfect/flawless turf I'd ever seen. Perfectly green. Tons of NFL teams have new turf and it's perfect. Ppl talk about it "breaking in", but ours has looked like crap

I tried to search through this thread and see if you had said you'd seen it in person yet but I didn't see you say anything about it so ignore me if you have.

My true opinion is that it's the camera angle on TV. I've seen it many times in person as I'm in Boone about every other week and checked on the progress throughout the transformation. It is absolutely stunning in person; truly one of the most amazing fields I've seen. I also happen to agree with you that it looks bad on TV.

For one, the color balance is off on our ESPN+ broadcasts. The regular ESPN production vs. Charlotte was better quality, but every turf looks terrible under wet and dreary conditions. The ESPN+ broadcast was bad, no two ways around it. Our field lighting does us no favors.

For both broadcasts though, the camera angle is the same. The rubber pellets are more visible when viewed from a steeper angle. I'm sure you've been on the field a few times for those amazing field rushing wins and maybe didn't look down, but on our old turfs when you stand on top of it and look down, it's ridiculous how many black pellets you see. It's the same concept as a yard; if you view it from ground level you won't see all the bare spots where grass hasn't grown, whereas if you view it from directly above you'll see every single bare spot there is.

[Mjohn1988]

My question is: does being inside/outside have anything to do with the amount or type of pellets needed to cushion a field like ours? I certainly understand the concept but it seems as if a lot of new turf fields do not "present" pellets as visibly as ours has, historically. Not criticizing or anything...safety first, but I am curious. I ask about the inside/outside thing because in watching the Panthers at Chargers game Sunday and thinking back to other recently built stadiums with turf, I don't seem to recall pellets being much of a noticeable thing, at least on the TV broadcast. Does the fact that you have a concrete base underneath the turf for an indoor/domed facility have something to do with less need for it? My gut says you would need more cushioning but maybe they have an additional level of actual padding underneath the turf when it's being laid on a solid surface, and that simply isn't an option on an outdoor field with soil and the need for drainage underneath?

The pellets help the field function more like a real grass / dirt playing surface. This is for safety. Without the pellets players get too much traction and destroy joints, knees and ankles. The pellets creat some give like dirt would have. The black pellets also help the officials in making calls along the sidelines. If a receiver drags a foot the black pellets are visible to the review team. But that’s a secondary effect and probably why you wouldn’t use pellets that are the same color as the field.