To grass and back

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(Image: Ohio Stadium grass installation, 1990) By 1978 the miracle plastic was “worn to the backing” and a new contract was put out to bid. In 1979, sections of the seven-year-old turf were sold outright to fans to defray the cost of the new surface. In the late 1980s, noting the high incidence of stress injuries sustained by players on turf, teams began to revert to grass. From March to May 1989 grass was reinstalled in Ohio Stadium, at an initial cost of $1 million, with annual groundskeeping costs as high as $50,000. Fierce wear, a drought, and a batch of sod that wouldn’t root forced the replacement of the field twice during the 2006 season. The 2001 renovation had created a de facto indoor climate, shielding the stadium’s sod from rain, sun and air. FieldTurf, a second-generation artificial grass, softened by an embedded layer of black rubber pellets and sand, was installed in 2007; the natural turf was given to the City of Columbus, to be installed across three baseball fields.