Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Citrus Bowl begins artificial turf installation

ORLANDO, FL -- The organization that runs the Citrus Bowl and its bowl games has ensured that the field conditions that marred last year's games will not happen again.

Florida Citrus Sports says installation of an artificial turf surface is underway, and the new field will be ready for the MEAC/SWAC Challenge between Southern and Delaware State on Sept. 5.

“We have been staging major events in the stadium for over 60 years where the athlete experience is of premium importance,” said Florida Citrus Sports CEO Steve Hogan in a news release. “Hosting a large number of events in short time windows have challenged the ability to provide optimum field conditions and paint schemes needed for national television. With this improvement, we are very excited about our ability to provide one of the safest, most technologically-advanced playing surfaces in the industry to our customer.”

Heavy rain and cold temperatures following last December's eight high school football championships at the stadium did not allow a new grass field to set properly before the Champs Sports Bowl and Capital One Bowl, making for a messy and dangerous situation. Miami Hurricanes running back Graig Cooper suffered a knee injury that he and his coaching staff blamed on the poor field conditions. Cooper's status for the 2010 season is still up in the air as he rehabs the injury.



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