CMU takes $650K bid for new venue
July 7, 2004
After heated debates last spring, the CMU field hockey team will get the new venue it desired.
CMU paid $650,000 for a new venue for the field hockey team after accepting a bid from FieldTurf, the company who also installed a new surface in Kelly/Shorts Stadium.
Construction on the new field began in mid-July and will be finished by Sept. 13, said Thomas Trionfi, director of purchasing. The field hockey season begins Sept. 24.
“That gives us a couple of weeks of leeway,” he said.
The final bid was $131,000 lower then what athletics and Trionfi had originally estimated.
During a June 25 special conference-call meeting, the Board of Trustees unanimously approved $781,000 to construct a field hockey facility after the team was displaced because of turf replacement at Kelly/Shorts Stadium.
The remaining cost — $354,000 — is being loaned to the athletics department from the capital projects reserve fund. The loaned money must be paid back during the next five years.
At the time of the July 7 meeting, athletics officials could not say how they planned to pay back the loan from the capital projects reserve fund.
“I’m going to be honest with you,” said Derek Van der Merwe, associate athletics director. “I cannot answer that question.”
University President Michael Rao, however, said there is no connection with the loaned money and the proposed athletics fee, which would charge incoming freshman $300 and transfer students $200 if approved.
FieldTurf’s bid was one of two received by the university. Pro Grass offered a bid of $450,000 but failed certification from the International Hockey Federation, which determines if a field is acceptable for international championships and competitions.
Trionfi previously said Athletics Director Herb Deromedi and Field Hockey coach Cristy Freese “believe it is a necessary certification.” He also said Pro Grass seemed “aloof” in dealing with CMU, acting uninterested in the contract.
FieldTurf’s original bid was $751,000, which Trionfi knocked down during negotiations with the company. Also, the price of the field was lowered because it will be a tacked-down surface, not glued down, which Trionfi said has no effect on the quality of the field.
“We were able to get a better price because the athletics department ... worked with us to come up with another way to get the price of the field down,” he said. “The fact that the athletics department was able to look at another option helped bring the price down.”
Deromedi said he talked with other schools who have tacked-down surfaces and determined it was a quality venue.
“We don’t anticipate any problems,” he said. “We wanted to work through the process to make sure we provided a field, but also a safe and quality field.”
Deromedi said the field hockey program deserves the opportunity to play on their own field, which he said is “their laboratory; it becomes their stage of performance.
“This is where they establish leadership qualities, they are able to find themselves and go through adversity and sometimes those things serve them well — long after their last semester of competition,” he said. “They deserve it. They have had a long history at CMU and they deserve this opportunity.”
After the original funding for the field passed on June 26, trustee Jerry Campbell expressed some skepticism toward the decision.
“I’m really concerned about the university,” Campbell said. “This is a non-academic area and we are cutting so much from academics.”
FieldTurf also will paint the lines on the field for the first two years for no additional charge.
CMU has also paid FieldTurf $639,000 to replace the turf in Kelly/Shorts Stadium.
Information for this article was taken from staff reports and the June 30 and July 7 editions of Central Michigan Life.
