From routine upkeep and field lining to equipment investments and long-term budgeting, campus rec leaders have to balance field access with the work required to maintain playable surfaces.
The condition of a campus recreation department’s fields plays an important role in students’ experience in intramurals and club sports. Keeping these outdoor spaces ready for use requires consistent maintenance, coordination with facilities teams and decisions about how to manage competing demands on the same surfaces.
From mowing and painting lines to removing debris and moving equipment, field maintenance involves a range of responsibilities that extend beyond preparing a space for its next game. Departments must also account for weather, scheduling and the resources needed to maintain their fields over time.
At Slippery Rock University (SRU), a conversion from grass to artificial turf at the McFarland Recreational Sports Complex, known as The Mac, expanded opportunities for campus recreation and other university groups to use the fields.
Funded by the Slippery Rock Student Government Association, the multi-sport turf project was designed to accommodate more activities while providing a home field for competitive club sports. The complex retained four smaller fields for intramural soccer and flag football, and added a larger field for soccer, lacrosse and rugby.
“The purpose of this field was also to take care of our club sports teams, so they now have a home field and a place to practice, and a lot of varsity teams play games throughout the week there,” said Brian Mortimer, the director of Campus Recreation at SRU. “Having the turf field allows those teams to have good availability for their practices and home games.”
The new surface also provides additional flexibility for varsity athletics, which can use the space when intramural and club sports are not scheduled. Other groups, including ROTC and student organizations, can use the fields as well.
At Quinnipiac University, however, field maintenance comes with a different set of considerations. The university doesn’t have artificial turf fields, making weather a significant factor in determining when outdoor spaces are available.
“We lose anywhere from 30 to 40 days of field use due to rain or wet fields annually,” said David Hall, the director at Campus Recreation at Quinnipiac.
Those lost days create scheduling challenges for intramurals and club sports, particularly when games have to be rescheduled around already busy calendars. Hall said recreation staff monitor the weather daily and determine whether conditions allow activities to proceed. After rain or other inclement weather, staff inspect the fields to decide when they can return to use.
The different experiences at SRU and Quinnipiac show how field maintenance varies by surface type and operating environment. Regardless of the surface, campus recreation leaders have to coordinate use, upkeep and scheduling to keep outdoor spaces available for campus communities.
Managing Maintenance and Field Use
Field maintenance responsibilities vary depending on how a university organizes its facilities and grounds operations.
At Quinnipiac, the field maintenance crew handles mowing and line painting, while Campus Recreation provides field dimensions at the start of the fall semester. Hall said fields are mowed weekly and lines are typically repainted once each season.
Beyond mowing and painting, Quinnipiac’s in-house maintenance work includes aerating, seeding, fertilizing and filling in worn or damaged areas as needed. These tasks help address the ongoing needs of natural-grass fields, which require a different maintenance approach than artificial turf.
Hall said communication between recreation and facilities staff is essential to preparing fields for use. He recommends establishing clear guidelines and timelines for field use, maintenance and communication, as well as keeping records of conversations and building strong working relationships with facilities and grounds teams.
At SRU, Campus Recreation is establishing its own routine for maintaining the new artificial turf field. The surface was completed in late summer 2025, and Mortimer said his team received guidance from Sprint Turf, the company selected for the installation, on how to care for it.
The recommendation was to sweep the field weekly during periods of heavy use and monthly when activity slows, such as during the summer.
To accomplish this, SRU purchased a Kubota tractor specifically for the complex. The tractor pulls a sweeping attachment that brushes the turf, separates rubber infill from collected debris, and uses a magnet to collect small pieces of metal, including screws and other construction debris. Staff periodically stop to clear the equipment when debris begins clogging its openings.
Mortimer said the team also learned how to operate the sweeper to help distribute the rubber infill evenly across the surface. Stopping the machine without lifting the brush first and allowing the remaining material to disperse can leave small piles of rubber that staff have to spread out afterward.
Even with the equipment, some debris requires manual attention. Nicotine pouches, which students sometimes throw onto the field, can be difficult for the sweeper to collect. Staff members occasionally walk the surface to pick them up individually.
For departments maintaining artificial turf, these early experiences illustrate the importance of establishing a consistent maintenance routine, understanding the capabilities of available equipment and accounting for tasks that machines cannot handle.
Equipment, Technology and Coordination
Equipment decisions also affect how easily staff can transition between activities on a multi-use surface.
At SRU, the team selected movable goals for soccer, lacrosse and rugby, along with player benches on wheels. The equipment can be repositioned as the field changes from one activity to another, and staff can use the Kubota tractor or a golf cart to move heavier items.
The field’s layout required planning as well. Before construction was completed, SRU considered which markings would allow the surface to accommodate as many teams and intramural activities as possible.
Despite the consideration, the turf company had to return after construction to correct part of the rugby field markings, highlighting the importance of planning layouts carefully when a surface is intended to support multiple sports and ensuring all lines are laid correctly.
For departments regularly painting natural-grass fields, field striping can also consume substantial staff time. According to Martin Neff, the product and testing manager at TinyMobileRobots, maintenance crews fit field marking around their other responsibilities, often while managing multiple sports and tight schedules.
Neff explained how technology like GPS-guided line-marking robots can help crews reproduce field dimensions using saved digital layouts. These systems can reduce the need to repeat measurements from scratch and may allow staff to redirect time toward other maintenance responsibilities.
Learn how autonomous line-marking technology can give your crew more time.
Quinnipiac also explored automation as an option for field marking. Hall said the university trialed technology from TinyMobileRobots and recommended its Facilities department consider purchasing the robots for line painting. The final decision is with Facilities, which coordinates mowing and field marking.
However, technology isn’t a replacement for staff expertise or a solution to every maintenance challenge. Neff emphasized equipment should be evaluated based on how it fits into the broader operation, including training, technical support and whether it saves staff meaningful time.
Experienced field managers still play an important role in recognizing field conditions and determining what maintenance is needed. Technology can support repeatable tasks, but departments must still account for the knowledge and judgment required to maintain their facilities.
Planning for Long-Term Costs
Beyond daily upkeep, leaders have to consider the costs associated with maintaining and eventually replacing their fields.
Mortimer said SRU’s new turf field came with an eight-year product warranty. Although the team is still establishing its maintenance routine, he’s already thinking about the financial resources the university will need when the surface reaches the end of its useful life.
As an auxiliary operation, Campus Recreation sets aside money for future projects rather than relying solely on its annual operating budget. Mortimer said the university encouraged the department to reserve $150,000 annually toward future turf replacement.
The plan is to build those funds over the coming years so the department has money available when replacement becomes necessary.
For SRU, regular sweeping and attention to the surface are part of the department’s effort to protect its investment and extend the field’s lifespan. The department is still early in that process, but setting aside funds now provides a framework for preparing for a significant future expense.
Quinnipiac’s experience requires a different aspect of planning: accounting for the operational effects of field conditions. When rain and wet grass result in lost field-use days, recreation staff make scheduling decisions and work with campus partners to determine when activities can resume.
Although each campus rec operation will have different facility needs, staffing structures and budgets, both examples demonstrate the importance of planning beyond the next practice or game.
For campus rec leaders and facilities teams, maintaining fields means balancing immediate demands with long-term priorities. Establishing consistent maintenance routines, coordinating responsibilities with facilities teams and planning for future expenses can help departments manage their outdoor spaces and keep them available for the students and campus groups who rely on them.
