RUSTON, La., June 9, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- FieldTurf added yet another Division I school to its impressive roster of college football stadiums when Louisiana Tech announced that it will install FieldTurf at Joe Aillet Stadium. Louisiana Tech Athletics Director Jim Oakes and FieldTurf CEO John Gilman made the official announcement. The project's initial work will begin this week, and the new FieldTurf surface will get its official debut when the Bulldogs host Nicholls State in their 2006 home opener on September 16.
Louisiana Tech's new surface will be FieldTurf's newest and most state-of-the-art field. It will feature monofilament, FieldTurf's most recent technology that includes the formation of each individual blade of grass. That replaces FieldTurf's earlier "slit film" (fiber) system. The new FieldTurf at Joe Aillet will replace its current natural grass.
"This will provide significant benefits to our athletic program," Oakes said. "It will be beneficial for football, women's soccer, the Tech band and even on occasions, our intramurals program. It will be a huge boost for our athletic department."
"We're very grateful to the athletic department at Louisiana Tech for the confidence they have shown in FieldTurf," said Gilman. "We are the undisputed world leader in the artificial turf industry, and we will provide a superior product that will provide outstanding playability and safety for the Bulldog athletes. Louisiana Tech will have without question the finest artificial turf playing field in the state of Louisiana."
"It's going to be great to have a field that we can practice and play on in any type of weather," said Louisiana Tech's veteran head coach Jack Bicknell. "One of my main concerns since I've been here is that when we would get rain, the field would be almost unplayable. We definitely couldn't practice on it. That's a worry off your mind. Rain or shine, we will have a place to go and practice. It's a great comfort to know that the field will always be ready. I don't even think we have begun to think of all the uses for it. If you don't have an indoor facility, every school should have this type of playing surface. It's the top of the line."
In addition to the football team, the women's soccer team will also play their home games on the new FieldTurf at Joe Aillet Stadium.
"It's going to be great for our program because playing in the stadium is a lot better atmosphere for our fans and our team," said Louisiana Tech head soccer coach Jennifer Burns. "This will allow us to play Friday night games under the lights, which our kids enjoy. It's also going to be great for recruiting to tell potential recruits that this is our stadium as well and that they will get to play all of their games on this field."
Joe Aillet Stadium has been the home of the Bulldogs since 1968 and has a current seating capacity of 30,600. It is named after Louisiana Tech's legendary former head football coach, who won nine conference championships. In the first game ever played at the facility, Terry Bradshaw, the Bulldogs' most noteworthy alumnus, quarterbacked the team to a victory over East Carolina.
In addition to its growing popularity in the college ranks, FieldTurf has already established itself as the turf of choice in the National Football League. Twenty-one of the NFL's 32 teams currently use FieldTurf at their stadiums and/or their practice facilities. Also, three Major League Baseball teams use FieldTurf at their stadiums.
The NFL Players Association recently conducted a survey of all NFL players who were asked to rank the league's 32 stadium fields on a variety of factors, such as playability, safety, etc. The NFL players ranked FieldTurf fifth out of 32, and amazingly, NFL players rated FieldTurf ahead of 15 of the league's 19 natural grass fields.
FieldTurf is the result of years of research -- evident in the patented FieldTurf infill mix of silica sand and cryogenic rubber and patented layering process that deliver a system that emulates natural grass. Additional benefits are found in improved player safety, reduced maintenance costs and flexibility for conversion -- allowing stadium managers to quickly change the field from one sport to another or to easily host a variety of sporting events, concerts and other special events directly on top of the FieldTurf surface.
Over the past few years, the quality and performance of FieldTurf's patented system has resulted in over 1,800 installations in more than 40 countries. For more information on FieldTurf, please visit www.fieldturf.com or call (800) 724-2969.