Not at Tiger Stadium, but at the 2002 Cotton Bowl the entire field was painted green because the grass was not the proper color. I know because it was all over my (white band) shoes. So yes, fields do get painted green to enhance the color. However, I cannot say for sure whether Tiger Stadium paints the darker stripes. My instinct tells me it isn't paint, but I've been known to be wrong every once in a while.
The Cotton Bowl, in Dallas, which gets much colder winters than Baton Rouge probably also has bermuda which would be dormant(brown) during this time of year. So yes, they can color the grass so that it looks green. At the golf course I work at we color the greens this time of year to help attract heat to help them from going completely dormant and to keep the members of our back.
Actually we were on synthetic in 2002 at the cotton bowl if I remember correctly, but my shoes as well were green from the paint they used to paint the field.
how else do you get them logos on the field? you play multiple games during the year with different logos that have to be painted over. eventually, your greens ain't gonna match. so you have to paint the whole thing to get an even color. *this is just a wild ass guess, but it kinda sounds like i know what I'm talking about*
Cotton Bowl has a grass field. Just double-checked on Wikipedia (can't find another source to corroborate but I'm fairly sure it was natural grass). When we were in the Dome in 2001 they were still using Astroturf. In 2003 they had made the switch to the synthetic grass-like field that uses ground-up tires as "dirt" (apparently called Fieldturf).
Red is right on the different color thing, or at least he was in the 80's when I was in Tiger Band. You could tell it was painted because the dirt between the blades was green. While rollers could be used to give the appearance of different color grass, it was not the technique used. What I have heard in the past is that only the purple paint kills grass, but since we want to paint the entire end zone, we just get used to it. During the Archer and Dinardo eras, the end zones were not fully painted so they survived better. On many FieldTurf fields, the yard lines are actually a different color and not painted. In fact, if there is no reason to change the logos, you could do this for all of the logos. Most people don't understand that FieldTurf isn't maintenance free either. It probably has to be cleaned in a rather involved process. I haven't seen the latest number, but over the life of the turf, it was more expensive to have an AstroTurf field than a natural one. Yes, you have to work more year round on a natural field, but the installation of the turf costs a lot more, and the cleaning was no less expensive during the season than mowing. My vote would be to keep it natural. I find it hard to believe that the upper decks of Tiger Stadium have any significantly more effect on the field-level sunlight levels than the upper decks of Jordan-Hare Stadium does on their field. Yet Auburn consistently has a better field than LSU. Something does need to be done. GEAUX TIGERS
You're probably right about the Cotton bowl, i just remember the green on my shoes was not the color green you expect grass on a football field to be. Yes I remember 2001 and 2003 as well... the ironic thing was we only got to practice on the actual field the morning of the game for 01, when it was astroturf but when they put the new stuff on we got to practice there every day. I think the best part though was that we weren't allowed to wear shoes on the field during practice and one of the trumpet section leaders being hung over and puking in her sweatshirt. By far the funniest part of the 03 trip. Back to the actual thread... Keep the field natural.
