Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BY ANDREW OWENS I r i s h a t h l e t i c s d i re c t o r J a c k Swarbrick announced during the Blue-Gold Game April 12 that synthetic turf will be installed as the playing surface at Notre Dame Stadium in time for the 2014 football season. The revelation ended several months of speculation revolving around whether the university would continue with a natural playing surface after it was admittedly "unacceptable in two of the past three seasons," according to Swarbrick. The AD said a decision was made in late February, and that he has spent the time since then informing administra- tors and leaders across campus. The stadium, which was built in 1930, has always housed natural grass. Notre Dame will begin work follow- ing its Commencement ceremonies May 16-18 with an estimated comple- tion date of Aug. 15. "We just couldn't get ourselves there," Swarbrick said. "It's more pro- cess of elimination that caused us to finally say, 'Okay. We've looked at ev- erything. We've talked to everybody. Let's go ahead.'" In a press release, Notre Dame stated the change will "provide greater con- sistency for the Irish squad, consider- ing it already practices both outdoors and indoors on FieldTurf." "It's probably more of a personal preference than an athletics depart- ment preference," Swarbrick said of his original desire to stick with natural grass. "I like it. I'm an alum here and it's part of the dynamic of the place. I was inclined to say, 'Can we do it?' Some of the other iconic stadiums have held onto it. Green Bay, the Rose Bowl. Both of those things played a role, but we just couldn't get ourselves there." Swarbrick said theories that the poor playing surface displayed at the Blue- Gold Game was intentional were "not true," adding that it was "as good as we could get the field to look today." With synthetic turf, Notre Dame plans to use the stadium for a num- ber of non-football events, including hockey games and concerts. The uni- versity Commencement has been held in the stadium for a few years now with a negative effect on the grass. Swarbrick said the playing surface was replaced four times in 2013. "That's the entire focus of the Cross- roads Project," Swarbrick said of the $400-million renovation of Notre Dame Stadium announced earlier this year. "It would be crazy to have the Cross- roads Project designed to do that and then have the field not be able to do it. We want it used like that." Swarbrick said no decisions have been made regarding field design, but said he "wouldn't expect to see major changes." While the process of installing syn- thetic turf would have been struc- turally similar to excavating for new grass, Swarbrick said it is actually cheaper now for the artificial surface. He added that was not the case when he began exploring the possibility a few years ago. "While finances didn't play a lead role here, last year we replaced our turf four times," he said. "It gets pretty expensive. It used to be, when I first