New teal turf at CCU could bring more events and concerts

CONWAY, SC (WMBF) - Coastal Carolina University will show its true colors on and off the field next football season.

CCU is planning to install artificial turf on its field – and it will be teal, Matt Hogue, CCU Interim Athletic Director confirmed.

The cost for the turf will be about $1 million and take about 90 days to install.

The renovation is expected to begin as soon as the Chants are done using the field this year.

The school went with teal because it's CCU's color and the school feels it's a unique symbol of university spirit, which is displayed in such campaigns as "Teal Tuesday" and "Feel the Teal." "It only made sense to be the first school in the country with a teal field," Hogue said.

CCU President Dr. Dave DeCenzo said the original plan was to have the turf field installed by the start of this school year.  The idea was to host this weekend's Darius Rucker concert outside on the turf where some 10,000 fans could enjoy the concert.

Dr. DeCenzo said things did not work out as planned so now only about 3,000 people can attend the concert at the HTC Center.  DeCenzo told WMBF News the school would like to bring Rucker back again to play outside in 2015.

Replacing the grass with turf will allow more student athletes and sports teams to use the field, since turf doesn't get damaged during bad weather.

There were a few hurdles CCU had to go through to get the rights for the "Teal Turf." Dr. DeCenzo said Boise State actually has a patent on its blue turf football field so CCU had to prove that Chanticleer Teal was much different than Bronco Blue.

Other notable schools with colored turf fields include Boise State and Eastern Washington which has a red field.

"I think it is becoming more of a trend when you look acrossthe country there's a lot of schools that when they have gone to the turfthey've realized the opportunity is there to become unique and to their colorscheme," added Hogue.  "You are seeing more and more schools do it I wouldn't say it justsimply to be a copy cat but I think the opportunity was there because of theuniqueness of what our color is."

Copyright 2014 WMBF News. All rights reserved.