SPRINGFIELD, Mass., May 2, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- FieldTurf, the world leader in artificial turf surfacing, was awarded its 2000th installation today when Springfield College announced that it plans to install FieldTurf at Benedum Field. The announcement was made jointly by FieldTurf Tarkett CEO John Gilman and Springfield Director of Athletics Cathie Schweitzer.
The new FieldTurf at Benedum will replace the existing AstroTurf. With a capacity of 3,867, Benedum Field is utilized by The Pride for football, field hockey and lacrosse. The new FieldTurf will be in place when Springfield College opens play in field hockey in early September. Springfield will play its first home football game of the '07 season on that field on October 6 against Husson College.
New England area football fans are already very familiar with FieldTurf. During the 2006 NFL season, FieldTurf was installed to rave reviews at Gillette Stadium, the home of the New England Patriots. In fact, FieldTurf is currently used by 21 of the NFL's 32 teams. FieldTurf is also in place at Boston College's Alumni Stadium and at Harvard Stadium.
"The Benedum Field installation of the FieldTurf surface will be the third of its kind at Springfield College," said Schweitzer. "Our experience with the first two (a men's and women's soccer field and a multi-sport practice field) has been excellent to date. We continue to have positive feedback from both the coaches and players who have been very pleased with the consistency of the surface. With FieldTurf, the unpredictable northeast weather has been taken out of the equation of obstacles. We feel we have had a safe and consistent turf on which to play and practice, and we will now anticipate the same for our football, field hockey and lacrosse teams. In fact, in FieldTurf, we feel we are providing our student-athletes with as fine an artificial surface as there is anywhere in the country."
"We have now been fortunate to practice on FieldTurf for the past two football seasons, and we are very much looking forward to having it installed as our regular playing surface," said Head Football Coach Mike DeLong. "We have found FieldTurf to be very dependable, durable, and fast. It has been nearly maintenance-free. And most importantly, we think it is one of the safest fields to play on. Our players really like it. The fact that it is our third FieldTurf field should speak volumes."
"We are very, very pleased to install FieldTurf at Springfield College's Benedum Field," said Gilman. "We have done business with SC previously, and it has always been a great experience for us. We sincerely appreciate that Cathie (Schweitzer) continues to have faith in our product. That repeat business means a lot to us, but we will never rest on our laurels. We continue to strive to always deliver the very finest surface to all of our customers around the world. Coach DeLong has been at Springfield for 26 years, and we guarantee that he will get a field that The Pride will take great pride in. All of us at FieldTurf are celebrating our 2000th worldwide installation, and we're thrilled that Springfield College brought us to that magic number!"
In just a little more than a decade, FieldTurf has proven to be one of the great success stories in the annals of sports-related products. FieldTurf's 2000 installations are in more than 40 countries worldwide. FieldTurf has revolutionized the turf industry while single-handedly changing the perception of artificial turf by coaches, players, athletic administrators and fans. There have been many imitators and knockoffs, but there is only one FieldTurf!
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 delivers 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 on top of the FieldTurf surface.
FieldTurf is a privately held company that has revolutionized the artificial turf industry with its patented products and installation technologies. FieldTurf also offers a full range of artificial grass solutions. For more information on FieldTurf, please visit www.fieldturf.com