Carlisle-Faulkner Field at M.M. Roberts Stadium will soon have new turf.
“We’ve gone through the bid process and worked through all that,” Southern Miss Director of Athletics Jeremy McClain told The Pine Belt News. “Right now, it’s just the products being produced, and it’ll be put down over the next two months. If everything goes smoothly and the weather cooperates, it should be completed sometime in June.”
McClain added that he expects the installation of the turf to be completed by July at the latest. The installation of the new turf will cost between $700,000 and $750,000.
The typical longevity for a turf field is 10 years, and the current turf was installed back in 2013, just after the EF4 tornado that struck Hattiesburg and was replaced due to damage.
“When the tornado came through, it deposited all kinds of debris and stuff on the turf,” McClain said. “They came in and looked at it and couldn’t salvage it because it was old too. They couldn’t clean it the way it needed to be cleaned.”
“We got 10 years out of it, and that’s the life expectancy of these kind of products. It held up well but showed some wear there the last couple of years.
Southern Miss will be using the same company, FieldTurf, that recently installed turf into Pete Taylor Park back in 2020. Notably, the type of turf will be different than the baseball field.
According to McClain, Southern Miss will unveil what the design and logos on the turf will look like later in the summer.
“We’ll definitely be putting it out there for everybody to see,” McClain said. “We’re getting on it. The design we have done. To start moving around here and start putting up turn might be not too far too long.
“We involved (Will Hall) in the process and a bunch of other folks, especially on the design aspect…Logo-wise, our effort is to make sure that we’re trying to be consistent with what we do. I feel like we’re in a really good place.”
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