PAINTING AND MARKING center of the field . Due to the wear on the middle of the field , a temporary tent was brought in to protect from wet conditions and re-paint the logo . Once the new branding was done , the next year permanent paint was applied for the endzone lettering , but the new midfield logo was painted with a temporary paint until a new inlaid logo was made .
Then OSU marketing requested a red , white and blue design be painted in the new beaver logo to recognize our military for Veterans Day . They sold more than 5,000 t-shirts that week with the patriotic logo I had painted .
With the great success of the patriotic logo , OSU requested designs for other events . Keeping with the military tradition , OSU decided on a digi-camo effect on the orange portion of the logo , requiring me to freehand the pattern ( the shapes were actually renditions of the counties in Oregon ). For Breast Cancer Awareness week , I outlined the endzone letters in pink . Wanting to bring back some past history , OSU brought back Retro Bennie , a lovable character that had to go through some dismal years of Oregon State football . Fans loved the seasonal addition of Bennie — usually for homecoming week . The Bennie logo is a bit narrower than the new beaver logo and a bit higher , so a removable turf green paint is added to the exposed inlaid logo .
There is a very limited color selection of removable paint in aerosol cans , so liquid paint needed to be used for custom colors . Bennie has black , white , orange and turf green as the required colors , but a custom liquid brown is needed for the main portion of the logo . If weather and time permit , a clear base can be added to the turf in both liquid and aerosol form to ease removal and keep paint from getting too deep in the fibers .
It is harder to keep paint on for an extended time if the field is new , as it usually has a UV coating to add to the
wear . When a field gets older , paint tends to stack on the fibers better , but is usually harder to remove . It usually takes three to five hours to paint a midfield logo or three to four hours overall with a couple helpers .
I typically head back the following week to remove the painted logo by spraying the remover on the painted portion of the logo , scrubbing with a deck brush , and lightly pressure washing the paint into the drain system . It is a lot of work by hand , but I don ’ t do enough painting of temporary lines and logos to warrant purchasing a remover machine .
With the help of my friend , Perry Petraquin , on the machine I use for laser grading , we installed an engine with pressure washer and scrub brushes that are powered by the hydraulic PTO ( and we added nozzles in front and behind the brushes ). I can also add pressure to the brushes with the up-and-down front control lever . We added a 20-gallon tank to the back of the machine . Not getting the flow of water needed to charge the pressure washer pump , we added a ShURflo pump to keep the system charged . I sometimes add buffer pads on the bottom of the scrub brushes to apply the remover more effectively . This machine works great for removing lines , as the combination of the two brushes is only about 15 inches .
With the amount of bowl games and related sponsors , more college teams are turning to temporary logos . Some NFL fields are completely green with everything you see being painted , even the lines . Some fields have blank endzones and middle of the field so they can paint logos for special games and other events . In some cases , there will be a game on Saturday , with paint removed at night and then the field repainted for the Sunday game .
Technology has come a long way from power washing chalk and paint markings from non-infilled turf . The turnaround is amazing , but does require a lot of planning and additional labor . For an outdoor stadium , tents are usually needed to keep the turf dry and to allow the paint to dry as well . Blowers and heaters can help with the drying process , but be sure to protect the turf from the heated blower by placing blowers on plywood to prevent them from melting the turf . SFM
Mike Hebrard is the owner / operator of Athletic Field Design , a leader in athletic field design , maintenance and customized graphics . He is an industry consultant and a frequent public speaker at industry events . For more information , visit www . athleticfield . com . sportsfieldmanagementonline . com February 2024 | SportsField Management
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