In six days, the Bills will host the first regular-season game at their new stadium. On the second new field there.
The team decided to replace the grass after only two preseason games.
Via Tim Graham of The Athletic, NFL field expert Nick Pappas explained what went wrong with the first field installed there.
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“The aspect of the field that appeared to be an issue was that there were major deformations happening, large divoting outside of what we typically see at many of our NFL grass fields — although not something we haven’t seen before,” Pappas told Graham. “That lent itself to say there was an opportunity to improve that surface, and that’s what the Bills have stepped up to do and made that decision to replace it.”
Pappas explained that, whenever a new stadium is built, “There’s a period before it gets turned over to Bills staff. So, you’re now reliant on the general contractor or the installation company for maintenance over a certain period of time.”
He attributed the situation to a “combination of the sod quality from the start, the challenges, and maybe the management up until the Bills’ grounds crew were able to take over, and then you couple it with a very new growing environment that needs to be worked through.”
Pappas said the new sod “will come in thicker” than the prior version.
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The next challenge becomes preparing the field for three home games in three weeks: Week 2, Week 3, and Week 4.
Pappas thinks another replacement will likely happen during the season.
“Recovery needs to outpace usage,” he said. “But if the weather is great and all goes well over that three-game stand, maybe they’re looking at Week 8 to replace it, or they can look at the weather and say, ‘Hey, based on where we are today, we have three weeks to recover. We can bring the grow lights out. We can provide our agronomic program with fertility and grow it back.'”
Given the weather challenges in Buffalo, Pappas said he wouldn’t be surprised if the Bills need three or four fields per year.
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That’s one of the reasons why some teams prefer artificial turf. It’s cheaper. It doesn’t require constant evaluation.
But if teams and owners care about giving their players the surface they prefer, it’s worth the money and the effort. Despite the challenges the Bills are facing, they deserve credit for trying to give the players the best possible surface.
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