Eagles play on greener pastures

by Renee Tomcanin managing editor

The Eagles were seeing red over their new green.

After 17 days of disputes, reworking and experimenting, the new turf in Veterans Stadium has been approved for use.

The problems began on Aug.13 when their preseason opener against the Baltimore Ravens had_to be cancelled. Drainage problems had caused uneven cutouts on the field, according to WorldNews.com.

One of the major issues raised in the fact that Veterans Stadium is one of the few stadiums left in the country that is converted from baseball to football fields. This makes installing artificial surfaces difficult.

These problems have been fixed by several methods. Asphalt has been laid underneath sections of the turf to solve the drainage issues. A crew of more than 50 workers, a number larger than the one that worked on the field for the Ravens game, took

Savoca also defended NeXturf's reliability. "This is a much more predictable surface. It's going to play the same way in November as it does in August," Savoca said.

The city paid $2 million for the field. Saidel's investigations deal mainly with how NeXturf's manufacturer won the contract. The cay turned over documents that dealt with this issue.

Saidel wants to make sure that the city performed no illegal actions in their granting the contract to the NeXturf company, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Meanwhile, the Eagles are still compensating for the cancelled preseason game against the defending NFL champions. Refund checks from the game have been mailecf to season-ticket holders. part in the conversion, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

A model of the new stadium was revealed on June 7, 2001.

City controller Jonathan Saidel has been investigating the company that sold the NeXturf field to the city.

Jim Savoca, the chief operating offi- cer of Southwest Recreational Industries, Inc., has defended his,company's product. "[Saidel] is going to find that the city bought the best product that was available," Savoca said.

If anything, the new turf had only good effects on the team. The Eagles won their first game on the field against the New York Jets, 13-12.