CHILLICOTHE, Ohio, Jan. 20, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- FieldTurf's ever-expanding dominance in the professional sports landscape spilled over into minor league baseball today when the Chillicothe Paints of the Independent Frontier League announced that they will install FieldTurf at V.A. Memorial Stadium in time for the 2006 baseball season. The announcement was jointly made by Paints' Owner Chris Hanners and FieldTurf CEO John Gilman.
"This state-of-the-art surface will allow us to utilize the stadium as a true multi-purpose facility," said Paints' Vice President/General Manager Bryan Wickline. "We hope this venue becomes the prime location for many events in and around our community. We will host more than baseball, football and soccer games. V.A. Memorial Stadium will become an attraction destination for concerts, festivals, company outings and many other special events."
"This is exciting news for us at FieldTurf," said Gilman. "V.A. Memorial Stadium is one of the most interesting and unique stadiums in all of minor league baseball, and we're very pleased to be able to add the FieldTurf touch. As the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Minnesota Twins and Toronto Blue Jays have quickly learned, FieldTurf is just an outstanding surface for baseball. The players love it. I'm confident that Chris Hanners, Bryan Wickline and Glenn Wilson (Paints' field manager) will be ecstatic when they see their new FieldTurf surface at the '06 home opener on May 24."
V.A. Memorial Stadium was originally constructed in 1954, but was completely renovated in 1993. The Paints consistently boast some of the top attendance figures in the Frontier League. In addition to the Paints, the stadium is also utilized for other events, including district and regional high school and collegiate baseball games, concerts and various Veterans activities.
FieldTurf has already established itself as the turf of choice in the National Football League and in NCAA major college football. Twenty-two of the NFL's 32 teams currently use FieldTurf at their stadiums and/or their practice facilities. FieldTurf is currently in use in more than 25 NCAA Division 1-A football stadiums including Ohio University, Kent State, Cincinnati, Louisville, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Missouri. Also, three Major League Baseball teams will use FieldTurf at their stadiums in 2006. FieldTurf was also the first artificial turf product approved by FIFA (soccer's world governing body) for World Cup play.
The NFL Players Association recently conducted a survey of all NFL players who were asked to rank the league's 32 stadium fields on a variety of factors, such as playability, safety, etc. The NFL players ranked FieldTurf fifth out of 32, and amazingly, NFL players rated FieldTurf ahead of 15 of the league's 19 natural grass fields.
FieldTurf is the result of years of research -- evident in the patented FieldTurf infill mix of silica sand and cryogenic rubber and patented layering process that deliver a system that emulates natural grass. Additional benefits are found in improved player safety, reduced maintenance costs and flexibility for conversion -- allowing stadium managers to quickly change the field from one sport to another or to easily host a variety of sporting events, concerts and other special events directly on top of the FieldTurf surface.
Over the past few years, the quality and performance of FieldTurf's patented system has resulted in over 1,800 installations in more than 40 countries. For more information on FieldTurf, please visit www.fieldturf.com or call (800) 724-2969.