Thursday morning, the NIU Board of Trustees voted to replace the playing field, not the entire field surface, at Huskie Stadium.

The estimated cost is $500,000, and NIU Athletic Director Jeff Compher says the cost is significantly less expensive than putting in an entire new surface. The new surface should be installed prior to the 2009 season.

The NIU Board of Trustess approved the item on a consent agenda. This means the NIU Board of Trustees did not debate the issue. Instead the topic was lumped in with other items and then was voted on as one large item.

NIU has had field turf at Huskie Stadium since 2001. With NIU not having any football practice fields, the field is used for practices as well as games.

Prior to the construction of the new track and soccer complex, the soccer teams played at Huskie Stadium as well.

Finance and Facilities-Operations as well as Intercollegiate Athletics determined that the field turf should be replaced before next season.

“It had probably more use than most fields get in its eight-year lifespan. It gets a lot of practice on it, because we don’t have a practice field for football,” Compher said. “It needs to be replaced based on some of the wear it’s showing.”

An independent consultant conducts a Gmax test on a semi-annual basis for indicators of the turf’s relation to injury prevention. In July 2008, results of this test revealed that areas of the turf were not acceptable, and the turf was a potential safety issue.

“It just had significant use, and it had a lot of wear on it,” Compher said. “We probably used it more than a lot of places used theirs.”