The Ravens have begun a project that a weekend gardener could only marvel at: picking up and relocating a lawn as big as, well, a football field.
The NFL team is carefully peeling its field at Memorial Stadium and laying it on an adjacent parking lot. There it will remain, secured by a chain-link fence and babied by groundskeepers, until June when it will be rolled up again and trucked to the new stadium at Camden Yards.
"We're the first ones to relocate a field like this," said Ravens head groundskeeper Vince Patterozzi.
The reason for all this effort is the unique, costly nature of the field. The Ravens were the first pro team to use SportGrass, a patented system of growing natural grass through a synthetic-fabric base. The idea is to combine the strength and resilence of fake turf with the cushion of the real thing. The field was provided by the McLean, Va.-based SportGrass at a discount so it might attract other customers. Leaving it behind and installing a new field would cost more than $1 million. It is five times as expensive as regular turf.
Patterozzi said the Ravens have been pleased with their faux sod, and players -- who blame artificial turf for knee and other injuries -- have been enthusiastic.
The unusual moving project began last week when a "harvesting machine" began recutting the field into the original 42-inch-wide, 38-foot-long strips that came from a Florida sod farm in 1996. rTC The strips were rolled up like giant toilet-paper rolls, taken to the parking lot and unrolled on the asphalt.
"We couldn't do this in the heat of July. But we've seen over the years that for a couple of months, you can put it on a hard surface like that," Patterozzi said.
The synthetic backing keeps the grass and soil together. Underneath is a sandy base covering a labyrinth of 38 miles of high-density plastic tubing, through which heated water is pumped to keep the field from freezing on cold days. This, too, is being dug up and will be installed at Camden Yards.
The transplanted grass -- 70,000 square feet of it -- will be watered and pampered in the parking lot until it is moved downtown. Another few weeks will be needed for settling, after which it will be ready for the pitter-patter of offensive linemen's cleated feet.
Among other things, the relocation of the field means there is no turning back for the Ravens. The new stadium will have to open for the Aug. 8 exhibition.
"Unless we want to play in the parking lot," Patterozzi said.
Pub Date: 2/25/98
