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| http://www6.montgomerycountymd.gov/content/council/pdf/agenda/cm/2008/080219/20080219_ED03.pdf
Well, here we are in 2013! And, how much revenue are the 5 artificial turf football fields that are currently installed at MCPS high schools generating?
$40,000 a year.*
Wow.
At $1.1 million per artificial turf field, how many years will it take to pay for 1 artificial turf field from these revenues? Someone call the Math Dude. This plan may not work out.
* Source: MCPS Budget Question #27
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Monday, February 4, 2013
MCPS Funding Plan for Artificial Turf Fails
Let's go in the way back machine for a moment, back to January of 2008. Remember this memo from Superintendent Jerry Weast to the Board of Education on how MCPS would pay for all 24 high schools to have artificial turf football fields? The plan was to use rental fees from the Richard Montgomery High School artificial turf field to "help offset costs for artificial turf fields at the other county high schools."
Renting out the turf is great, but the revenue issue aside, I thought there would be a field "usage" issue based on the article written Jan 30th "Guest Post: Why does FieldTurf have this unreasonable usage restriction in its warranty?" So if schools are encouraged to rent out, whose monitoring the "usage hours"? In Fall the schools use it for Football (Varsity and JV), Soccer (Boys and girls Varsity and JV) and Field Hockey (Varsity and JV). In Spring it's Boys and Girls Lacrosse (Varsity and JV). Currently teams usually don't use their grass field for practice due to the wear and tear but may want to with the artifical turf. Now introduce outside teams renting for both practice and games. Even tournaments. I am not sure how close you would come to the 2,000 or 3,000 hours but that better be something the county looks at before giving a green light to opening it up to everyone.
ReplyDeleteMaybe open it up and lower the rates.
ReplyDeleteWhen the field gives out in a few years, maybe folks will rethink what a great idea playing on a patio rug is.
Cost savings was an important part of their argument.
Was this limited use factored into the grass maintenance costs?
Should we trust ANY of the documentation submitted?
These numbers can vary and do not include playoffs. High school Football Varsity plays 5 home games, JV plays 4. Boys and girls soccer varsity play 6, JV 5, Field Hockey 6, JV 4, lacrosse boys and girls varsity play 7, JV 4. Games run approximately 1.5 hours. Calculating all that comes to 94.5 hours. Lets round up to 100. You can't really practice on a field if there is a game but lets assume 3 practices on the field a week from September through October. That's 360 hours. Factor in Spring were at 720 and add the games we calculated and we are at 820 hours. Round up to 900 and you still have over a 1,000 hours to play with. Of course that doesn't include times when schools don't lock their fields and the roaming soccer games spring up.
ReplyDelete