The Platinum TE strain of Paspalum, more expensive than the Bermuda grass, was developed to tolerate shade and withstand the traffic of sports activity.
Available for less than 10 years, it has been most widely applied to golf courses throughout the world. It has been used successfully at Marlins Park since 2014 after two varieties of Bermuda grass didn't cut it, so to speak, due to light limitations with the retractable roof.
"For us it's been by far the most successful one," Claude Delorme, Marlins executive vice president of operations and events, said of the switch to Paspalum. "It's been a significant change since we did that. The first two years it was our No. 1 issue with the ballpark, the condition of the sod and adapting to the shade resistance."
Football is tougher on any grass field than baseball or golf, particularly in a stadium shared by the Dolphins and the University of Miami. The Dolphins' stadium will be the first in the NFL with Platinum TE.
Boyan's crew observed how the field at Marlins Park held up to the Miami Beach Bowl played there the past two years. The Paspalum grown for the Dolphins also passed safety tests mandated by the NFL for holding up to players making football moves.
"I think it's a quality grass. It's something that's firm enough for the players for traction and soft enough for safety," Boyan said.
The Dolphins' new field was trucked in from a sod farm in Alabama that has been supplying sod for the stadium for a number of years. It was grown on plastic through a process that was also used with the previous Bermuda grass turf, which creates a more dense root system that provides for firmer footing for players, even in the rain.
"You've seen in the old days where a lot of chunks of grass would come up. We don't have that," Boyan said.
The Dolphins already are practicing on Platinum TE Paspalum at their training facility in Davie. It is used for the field farthest away from the stands, while the nearer field has Bermuda grass.
To ensure that the new turf thrives despite more shade at the stadium, the Dolphins purchased 13 banks of grow lights from a firm in the Netherlands. The lights are used extensively in soccer stadiums in Europe and South America that have similar shade canopies, as well as in some retractable-roof stadiums in this country. The Marlins use some lights to help promote growth in the outer reaches of the outfield that get limited sunlight during parts of the year.
The Dolphins' grounds crew tested the lights on sod covered by a tent during the past year and found they helped augment growth and keep the grass healthy. Dolphins owner Steve Ross gave the OK to acquire enough mobile lighting units to cover 30 to 40 percent of the field at a given time.
"We want to make sure we have a top quality field," Boyan said. "With the switching of the grass, we think the players will like the type of field they're playing on. They're practicing on it in Davie, and the response so far has been very good."