New RCA Dome playing field planned for Colts

By Hugo Guzman  |   Thursday, February 17, 2005  |  Comments( 0 )

Indianapolis Colts
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INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana - The worst playing surface in the NFL will be replaced by a new synthetic turf for the 2005 season. The city's Capital Improvement Board has approved $800,000 for a new field for the Indianapolis Colts along with $900,000 for a hard cover to protect the turf when the RCA Dome hosts non-football events.

The 8 year-old AstroTurf in the downtown stadium was voted the worst surface in the league, according to a survey of 1,514 players by the NFL Players Association two weeks ago.

The top four fields in the survey of players - Tampa Bay's Raymond James Stadium, Arizona's Sun Devil Stadium, Carolina's Bank of America Stadium and Houston's Reliant Stadium - all have natural grass. The fifth-best, Seattle's Qwest Field, has FieldTurf, the same playing surface the Colts installed in their indoor practice facility.

Other possibilities for the RCA Dome include Sportexe Momentum, which is used in Baltimore's M&T Bank Stadium and the Superdome in New Orleans, and AstroPlay, which is used in Buffalo's Ralph Wilson Stadium.

"It was a mutual agreement that the days of the (AstroTurf) that has been in the dome are numbered," Pete Ward, the Colts' senior executive vice president, told the Indianapolis Star. He said the team and the CIB "agreed that some form of the new technology was the best way to go."

The new surface is expected to be installed by May and ready for use when the Colts open their preseason schedule in August. It will not be ready for the NFL scouting combine, which begins next week. Some prospective NFL players have declined to run a 40-yard-dash on the RCA Dome turf, preferring instead to do that at private workouts.
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About Hugo Guzman

Trying to bring an objective approach to NFL analysis.
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