Rain Turns Turf Into Skating Rink

Rain or shine, the new artificial turf at Albi Stadium is getting better.

Greater Spokane League football coaches might believe that shine part, but the rain part, no way.

Albi has a new turf this fall and five weeks into the football season it gets rave reviews - except that when it’s wet the players look like beginning skaters on a frozen pond.

“All new knitted nylon turf is slick,” Dan Collier said. “The reason is … a spin finish that wears off in a month or two after installation … as the sun hits it or it rains or gets wet.”

The new turf at Albi is Desso DLW Synthetic Turf, manufactured by a company in Holland. Collier, who lives in an Oklahoma City suburb, is a manufacturer representative. He said he should have warned the city the turf would be slick, but because not every customer has complained, he doesn’t issue a warning. However, every customer that switched from the tufted polypropylene turf previously at Albi, has complained.

Three different surfaces were considered, Desso, AstroTurf and Edel Grass, which is a synthetic-real combination.

The Desso DLW bid came in $150,000 cheaper than AstroTurf, which got the recommendation of a search committee that included GSL football coaches.

“We’re new; we need jobs in strategic areas,” Collier said. “We needed one close to Seattle. There are 20-some artificial turfs in Seattle. We needed one close enough to take someone.”

Shoreline recently installed a new surface and had a low bid for Desso but went with AstroTurf, which left the door open for Spokane to get the lower bid.

“We expect (Albi) to be slippery for up to a month,” Don Hogan said.

Hogan and Associates of Seattle, the engineer on the Albi job, has a project in Union City, Calif., and the football team has had slipping problems. The surface is AstroTurf.

Collier said shoes make a difference and most go a multi-cleated shoe. , DataTimes