Murrieta, CA – Football and soccer players who play at Los Alamos Hills Sports Park in Murrieta, CA could be playing on the same turf as NFL players.
The current turf at the sports park will soon be removed from the football and soccer fields and replaced with synthetic fields.
Construction will be done by Sprinturf, whom have experience in placing synthetic turf in an NFL field, a Murrieta city requirement.
Why experience in an NFL field ?
“The NFL has valuable players and they’re going to look for a safe product, and they have the resources beyond what we have,” said Jim Holston, assistant city manager, who presented information to the council. “This helps to make sure [the bidders] have a valuable product.”
“That’s a pretty tall order to fill,” said Mayor Pro-Tem Harry Ramos.
Sprinturf was also the lowest responsible bidder in the amount of $959,000. Murrieta City Council approved construction to Sprinturf at their city meeting Tuesday, Feb. 4. There were nine bidders for the construction contract and they all had experience in placing turf in an NFL field.
Apart from having experience of placing synthetic turf in an NFL field, some of the requirements that bidders needed to demonstrate were experience in various sizes of fields. This includes high school and college fields.
The synthetic turf will help to reduce maintenance and save water, according to Holston. It will also be playable year-round without having to be watered.
“This project has some cost savings that you’ll recognize at the end of the day, but we won’t know until we finish it,” he said.
Holston and his staff came to the council a year ago and the project was once approved by the council but they had a “technical error” and had to reject all bids.
He said they’ve now worked through the process.
Holston and his staff will return to the council in March with more information on this project.