Contractor bids for installing the synthetic turf in the stadium will be accepted until March 20. The current turf was first installed in 2005.
The grass practice fields will be replaced with turf. Also part of that project will be the installation of six light poles, according to John Cheney, associate athletic director for event management.
“For our athletic department that (grass) field is a great resource that is used only about 30 days out of the year,” football coach Mike Riley said. “It costs thousands and thousands of dollars to maintain it.”
The practice fields are only used by the football team each August for training camp. The Beavers rarely practice on them after the season starts, and never during the long rainy season. The turf will allow the fields to be used even when it is wet in late fall and the spring.
It gets dark so early late in the season that practices are moved to the stadium under the lights. With lights at Prothro that won’t be necessary.
Other sports can use Prothro in late winter and early spring if needed, but the two football fields are being lined for football only, Cheney said.
Prothro will be leveled out as part of the project. There’s a crown in it now for drainage. It will be gated to help control access.
“Years ago I told (former OSU) President (Paul) Riser that if we built an indoor football facility it would be the most used building on campus, and it is,” Riley said. “Now the practice field would be like the recreation field. We could use that field all the time for all the sports.”
The football team uses Reser Stadium to practice during the season because nearly all their opponents have synthetic fields. Practicing on grass even in good weather doesn’t prepare the Beavers for the speed of the game on turf.
If the football team isn’t using Reser Stadium there’s band practice, soccer practice, intramural games and other events going on. That leads to early wear of the field.
“I take a look at this, and any hour of the day something is going on,” Riley said of Reser Stadium. “We can spread this out a little bit and make this a more useable facility year round.”
Plans call for putting the turf all the way to the wall and taking out the asphalt between the field and stands for safety.
A big booster helped fund much of it the project, but there were other smaller donors who helped make it happen, Riley said.
Work on the practice fields could happen as soon as April and May, Cheney said. That would interfere with spring football practice, but the Beavers can use the stadium or the indoor center.
Stadium work is planned for the summer after OSU’s commencement ceremony.
