Thursday, October 05, 2000
Grass decision to come next week
Construction schedule top factor
By Chris Haft
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Reds chief operating officer John Allen said a decision on whether to install grass at Cinergy Field could be made by the end of next week.
He reiterated that installation costs weren't an obstacle to grass, which fans and players overwhelmingly prefer to the artificial turf currently in place.
But, Allen said, “It's issues such as the timing of getting everything done with the "bite' (the 14,000-seat chunk to be removed to accommodate construction of Great American Ball Park), to give us time to put down the grass.”
Allen added that if grass were to be planted: “When 2003 comes and you start to demolish (Cinergy Field), instead of having an asphalt base, you have turf and gravel under there. That's certainly not as nice as having asphalt to bring in all these trucks and heavy equipment on, thus increasing the costs from street cleaning and that type of thing. So there are a lot of different factors we're dealing with.”
Allen pointed out that the drainage system in place for Cinergy's AstroTurf also could be used with sod.
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Grass decision to come next week
