ST. LOUIS – After just one season of MLS soccer at CityPark, St. Louis City SC is replacing their pitch. They removed the old pitch and are now in the process of re-sodding the field.
“It’s sod day. It’s a great day at CityPark,” Josh McPherson, the director of stadium grounds with St. Louis CITY SC, said. “With the sod on plastic, the thicker cut sod, it kind of has a one-to-two-year life cycle. And so, we’ll be hitting two years. Even though we only had one season, we actually sodded about two years ago.”
Crews are taking advantage of a three-week gap in the home schedule to do this renovation properly. St. Louis weather plays a big role in maintaining the pitch.
“Being in the transition zone where it’s really hot in the summertime, really cold in the winter, we kind of have to have a two-grass system based on the length of the MLS season. It’s quite extensive,” McPherson said.
The sod replacement has timed out well with when they switch between grass types.
“And so, to make the Bermuda grass survive, we overseed with rye grass in the fall because, in the winter, the Bermuda grass will go down and dormant,” he said. “The rye grass thrives in the April temperatures here, but then eventually we have to go to 100% Bermuda grass again.”
The higher sun angle in late April also helps.
“The south end in October, we start losing our sunlight, and that’s why we rely on the grow lights from October until now on the south end,” McPherson said. “So, to have that full sun that really helps us to establish the grass in real sunlight and not using artificial light.”
With the pitch at around 83,000 square feet, 19 semi-trucks full of sod arrived Thursday, with another nine trucks scheduled for Friday. The timing to get the sod in place is critical.
“This was harvested (Wednesday). So, the first truck was loaded at 10 a.m. (Wednesday). The goal is we try everything we can within 24 hours try to get it from sod farm in North Carolina to in the ground here in St. Louis,” he said.
If all goes as planned the pitch will be done by around 2 p.m. Friday and will be ready for the next home game on May 11.
“We are going to take care of things before it becomes a problem. So, we’re going to do the routine maintenance. We don’t want a pitch failure. We’re going to keep it at the high end. And so, we’ll be replacing it when people are like, ‘Oh, is it really necessary?’ instead of, ‘Why haven’t we done that already?’” he said.