PAINTING AND MARKING

By Mike Hebrard

With constant branding , rebranding and social media , the need for adding or changing logos on athletic fields is a revolving door . Technology has come a long way from chalking lines and designs on the old mat-style synthetic fields by adding yellow iron oxide to white chalk and simply washing it off with a hose or pressure washer .

With the advent of infill fields , a better application and removal was needed so as not to build up the chalk layer . The Seattle Seahawks , for example , had an allgreen field and were using regular grass paint to paint lines , numbers and logos , and then would power wash it off to convert to soccer . But the constant wet weather in the Pacific Northwest and the buildup of paint didn ’ t make for a very clean product .

A local stain company , Eco Chemical , was asked to assist , as they dealt with resins and had developed a paint that would re-liquefy with the application of a nontoxic remover solution . Through experimentation , lab testing and on-field application with the Seahawks , a paint was created to be applied and removed by adding the remover that would soften the paint and be allowed to scrub and washed through the draining system . Then a highly specialized machine was used to extract the paint particles and vacuum the surface . With the design of the paint , water and rain would not wash out the paint — making it last for several events . There are currently several NFL fields that are allgreen turf , while others have endzones and midfield logo areas that are painted and removed in a weekly or gamescheduled fashion .

When Oregon State University ( OSU ) decided to replace its field , OSU had not yet released its new branding . I painted the endzones with the old font and the Angry Beaver logo in the

28 SportsField Management | February 2024 sportsfieldmanagementonline . com