North Carolina State University Athletics
Carter-Finley Ready To Go (10/9/09)
10/9/2009 12:00:00 AM | Pack Athletics
Resodding photo album
Friday, Oct. 9, 2009
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH – Except for the minor final detail of re-installing the goal posts on either end of the field, the resodding of Wayne Day Field at Carter-Finley Stadium following last weekend's U2 concert is complete.
"It turned out well," said Ray Brincefield, assistant athletics director for outdoor facilities."We're happy with how it looks."
The crew from Atlanta's Precision Turf finished installing the Alabama-grown bermuda sod early Thursday and the Carter-Finley grounds crew painted the lines and logos on the field Thursday and Friday.
Head football coach Tom O'Brien seemed pleased with the progressed, based on his post-practice comments Thursday night, and all is set for Saturday's 4 p.m. game against Duke, when a sold-out crowd will get a good look at the new field.
Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2009
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH, N.C. – Eric Holland has had more difficult tasks, with much less devotion to the taskmaster.
So Holland, co-owner of Atlanta's Precision Turf and a 1998 graduate of NC State, feels confident he and his crew of 24 workers can make Carter-Finley Stadium even better than it was before U2 played on Wayne Day Field last Saturday night.
He only has a short amount of time: NC State's football team is slated to host Duke Saturday afternoon on the same field.
But, back in June, Precision Turf pulled off the nearly impossible task of putting down real grass in the Georgia Dome, then watching Mexico and Venezuela play a World Cup Football Challenge game on it less than 40 hours later. You can watch how that game, played with real grass on top of the permanent artificial turf at the dome, turned out on this YouTube link.
Holland's task here is not nearly so challenging. It began on Tuesday, when rolls of grass began arriving from the same Foley, Ala., sod farm that supplies grass for the NFL's Super Bowl. The crew began the 24-hour task of unrolling, tightening and watering the new top layer of grass, replacing the dying layer that was under the arena decking that covered the field during the 10-day set up and break down of the U2 stage.
"By Saturday, you won't even see the seams," said Holland, a native of Asheville. "It will be ready to go."
Holland, a former grounds crew member at Carter-Finley, says he will make sure the field is in perfect condition by Saturday's 4 p.m. kickoff.
"This is where I got my start, and I want to make sure everything is taken care of," Holland said.
Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2009
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH, N.C. – Under a moon-lit (not blood-red) sky, U2 finally played its long-awaited gig at Carter-Finley Stadium on Saturday night.
It was 12 years after the band was originally scheduled to play its first-ever concert in Raleigh, but that first show, part of 1997's Popmart stadium tour of the United States, was canceled because of weather-damage to the elaborate video board that was used at the time.
This time, however, on a picture-perfect night, with a full moon hanging over the south side of the stadium, the Irish rock band roamed its spectacular in-the-round stage during a two-hour epic show, featuring Bono's typical preaching, a touch of Desmond Tutu and a "Stand By Me" serenade. (Check out this photo gallery of the concert from Roger W. Winstead from Twitter's PackPix.)
By Sunday night, as the final echoes of "Where The Streets Have No Name" bounced off Vaughn Towers most of the infrastructure of the claw-like stage was gone, loaded back onto the tractor trailers to take it off to the next stop on the 360º Tour.
Monday afternoon, the interlocking aluminum arena-deck was removed, revealing the dying turf underneath.
Tuesday, the old grass was excavated and a new layer of sand was being spread over the field, in preparation for Saturday afternoon's home football game against Duke. Kickoff for the contest is slated for 4 p.m.
"It takes about 24 hours to get the old sod up and get the field re-graded," said assistant athletics director for outdoor facilities Ray Brincefield. "We expect to start resodding the field at about 8 p.m. Tuesday."
That process will take a full 24 hours, with two shifts of laborers from Precision Turf working around the clock to get the new grass installed, Brincefield said.
After the installation is complete, Brincefield and his staff will determine whether they need to roll and cut the grass before they begin painting the field for Saturday's game.
"We will have all night Wednesday to roll it if we need to," Brincefield said. "We heard from Miami that they didn't roll or cut their new sod at all after it was installed. They just put it out on Thursday, painted it on Friday and played on it on Saturday.
"We have that 12-hour window to decide what we want to do. What we are hearing is that it is not needed. We might get everybody some sleep before we start painting."
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
Friday, Oct. 2, 2009
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH, N.C. – The whole idea, say the people in charge of production for U2's 360° Tour, is to make ticket holders stop in their tracks the first time they see the sheer enormity of the claw-like stage, which at its peak rises some 150 feet from field level of the stadiums it has visited on the band's world-wide tour.
"The initial reaction that people get when they get here is always a pause," said Craig Evans,U2's tour director. "They have heard that it is big. The see news clips. They read about how it creates an intimate feel in a stadium.
"But they still pause. It just takes a while to take it all in."
The massive structure is so large, in fact, that it makes the Carter-Finley Stadium seem kind of small.
"The whole object when we began designing this was to make something so large that we would make the stadium look really small," said Jake Berry, the production manager for the 360° Tour. "That stage, do you not agree, makes the stadium looks kind of small? You can see it from Greensboro, can't you? Then the fans will get the ultimate stadium intimate experience."
Even more so at the bi-level, 56,500-seat home of NC State's football team, the second smallest venue on the tour, according to Berry. The concert here almost didn't happen: the in-the-round stage design fits so snugly into Carter-Finley, it has only two feet of clearance on either side from the concrete walls surrounding the field.
Plus, there was only one tunnel to bring in some 48 truckloads of production equipment, which includes the speakers, the video board and lights. All of that arrived Friday morning, along with three trucks from presenting sponsor Blackberry and 14 buses, straight from Thursday night's show at Scott Stadium in Charlottesville, Va.
At the beginning of the tour, in Barcelona, Spain, in June, it took 16 hours to set up the production portion of the show. The load time now, on a good day, is about 5.5 hours. (It took a little longer at Carter-Finley, because there is only one tunnel for transporting equipment from outside the stadium onto the field.)
The stage and production equipment is designed to withstand all kinds of weather, an important point for U2 fans in the Triangle. In 1997, the band was all set to perform at Carter-Finley on its 1997 Popmart Tour, but high winds and rain caused extensive damage to the video screen and stage setup that the show had to be canceled.
So coming back to the Triangle - where the band has not played since opening for Todd Rundgren at a 1983 festival in Chapel Hill - was important to the group.
Now, weather shouldn't be an issue, even if there is a chance of rain on Saturday.
"We have invested a fair amount of income into researching safety guidelines for bad weather," Berry said. "Rain doesn't bother us - if it rains, we will get wet, along with everyone else. Wind is a major issue for us. The stage can withstand up to 30 mile per hour, above that, we have to take the video board all the way up. If it hits 35 miles per hour, we drop it down.
"If it gets up to 40 miles an hour, we all run like hell."
Evans announced at the afternoon media gathering that some late production release tickets are now available for sale through Ticketmaster, after making sure there were no obstructed view seats around the stage.
Just in case you think there is a chance that you might run into Bono or The Edge at the downtown Krispy Kreme or in a hotel Starbucks -- the band flew straight from its gig in Charlottesville to New York, where the individual members of the band are rehearsing for a (RED) Nights benefit concert at Carnegie Hall at 8 p.m. on Sunday. So they are flying from New York to Raleigh on Saturday, then straight back to New York for Sunday's show and then on to Atlanta for the next stop on the 360º Tour.
Some facts and figures about the unique setup for Saturday's show.
- The stage has a 360° configuration.
- The stage has a defined front, but available seating behind the stage is filled, as per previous arena tours in North America.
- The stage has a ground-breaking, cylindrical video screen.
- The video screen weighs 54 tons.
- Closed, the video screen is 4,300 square feet. Open, it is 14,000 square feet, the size of two doubles tennis courts.
- The video screen is made of 1 million parts (500,000 pixels, 320,000 fasteners, 30,000 cables, 150,000 machined pieces).
- The stage was built by Belgian company Stageco. The construction of each stage requires the use of high-pressure and innovative hydraulic systems.
- The steel structure is 90-feet tall with the center pylon reaching 150 feet from field level.
- The design can support up to 180 tons.
Thursday, Oct. 1, 2009
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH, N.C. – Carter-Finley Stadium sat unexpectedly quiet Thursday afternoon, as the crews building the infrastructure for the U2 360º Tour stage finished its setup about eight hours ahead of schedule.
For NC State assistant athletics director Ray Brincefield, it was just a minor lull before the fury.
"Without a doubt, we are within the eye of the storm right now," Brincefield said overlooking the stage setup from the south end concourse of Carter-Finley Stadium. "The tour production team will be in here at 7 a.m. Friday, with about 70 tractor trailer loads coming straight from [Thursday night's show] in Charlottesville, Va."
It was a welcome rest after more than seven months of planning and four-and-a-half days of set-up. The claw like structure – without the retractable video board, the sound and mixing equipment and the actual stage – rises above the east and west stands. A spire that goes on top of the structure will be in place Friday and should stretch above the light towers.
Brincefield, who strapped into a harness and went to the top of the structure to inspect the process Thursday morning, said the installation was nearly perfect, with only a few minor bumps and bruises to the stadium's infrastructure. Those will be repaired and paid for before the stage leaves town.
"Of the 15 or 20 stadium shows I have been a part of, this has been the easiest one I have ever done," Brincefield said. "I've never seen one go this smoothly."
His list of shows includes Carter-Finley Stadium, the Cotton Bowl, Columbia, S.C.'s Williams-Brice Stadium, Clemson's Memorial Stadium and the old Charlotte Coliseum. There has also been a flurry of activity and an army of workers to get the job done.
Brincefield gives credit to his co-workers within the NC State athletics department, the RBC Center staff, the NC State Design and Construction Services, Burger's Green Steel Crew, the local steel workers' union and the NC State Office of Insurance and Review Management for getting this phase of the job done early.
NC State assistant athletics director Shannon Yates was also busy making sure the stadium was ready for the operational madness that will begin on Friday morning. Live Nation Global, the promoter for the show, will arrive en masse and make sure everything is set up to the band's specifications.
Yates said the ticket takers are ready, the concessions are ready and the event and parking staff is all set to go. Even though the forecast calls for some rain on Friday and Saturday, that won't change any of the plans for the event, Yates said.
Parking gates at Carter-Finley will open at 3 p.m., the general admission ticket holders can enter at 5 p.m. and opening act Muse begins at 7 p.m. U2 is scheduled to take the stage after 9 p.m.
For more information about specifics for Saturday's show, visit www.gopack.com/U2.
And, for those lucky enough to be attending Friday night's Carolina Hurricanes 2009-10 season-opener, the sound check for the concert might be a sneak preview for Saturday's show. It is scheduled to go from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m., with accomplished musicians standing in for U2 members Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen, Jr.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2009
BY BRANDON STOKES
Members of NC State's athletics department have been working since March to finalize all the details for Saturday's U2 concert, which is no only about 100 hours away.
Now, it's time to finalize all of the operational procedures and tie up all loose ends.
At 2 p.m. Monday, assistant athletics directors Shannon Yates and Ray Brincefield had a conference call with LiveNation, Ticketmaster, and Staff One about the finalization of stadium policies, which included gate assignments, facility setup, and other logistical operations issues that have cropped up since the stage set-up began Sunday evening.
To see the most up-to-date information about the concert, please go here.
At 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, Yates will meet with Ticketmaster at the stadium box office to make sure it's ready to accommodate a packed house. Then, at 2 p.m., she and Brincefield will meet with the external operations staff, which includes campus police, fire safety, Rex Hospitals, Wake EMS, McLaurin Parking and Staff One, in order to make final staffing preparations.
Now that the show is just hours away and the base of the monumental stage is going up, anticipation and excitement is running through, not just the athletics department, but all U2 fans.
Monday, Sept. 28, 2009
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH, N.C. -- On a crystal-clear autumn morning, a trio of cranes arrived on the field at Carter-Finley Stadium to begin the installation of the four bases for the in-the-round stage of U2's 360º Tour.
Earlier, after an all-night shift by dozens of installers, the interlocking aluminum arena flooring was completed from the north end zone to the far 40-yard line, providing a protective base for field from the claw-like stage.
The concert was mentioned during NC State football coach Tom O'Brien's weekly press conference Monday afternoon. The coach said the concert set-up was not a distraction to his players and had no affect on their preparation for Saturday's Wake Forest football game.
"We aren't in the stadium during the week," O'Brien said. "We walk over to practice. The stage is being set up on the other side of the stadium [from the Murphy Center]. I don't even think our players look out the windows to the field, unless they are lifting weights in the morning."
O'Brien said he was comfortable that the field will get a new layer of grass following the concert that will be ready for the Oct. 10 home football game against Duke.
"I know it has been done before at other stadiums and there haven't been any problems," O'Brien said. "Obviously, we won't know until after it happens."
For now, all is going as planned, with perfect weather to boot.
"Everything is going smoothly," said NC State assistant athletics director for outdoor facilities Ray Brincefield, who oversees the field at Carter-Finley.
And that, no matter what genre those in charge of planning the elaborate set-up for Saturday's concert enjoy, is music to the ears.
Sunday, Sept. 27, 2009
The first load came off the trucks not long after NC State's defense made its final stand in Saturday's 38-31 football victory over Pittsburgh.
From 9 p.m. Saturday until 2 a.m. Sunday, dozens of workers unloaded stack after stack of interlocking aluminum pallets along the roadway that leads to the A.E. Finley Fieldhouse in the north end zone of Carter-Finley Stadium.
The gleaming metallic lumberyard sat idle until Tom O'Brien and his NC State football team finished its Sunday evening walk-through, which took place at its normal time, from 5 p.m. to 5:45 p.m.
But at 6 o'clock on the nose, the road crew from Live Nation Global began measuring where it would place the most elaborate stage in show business, the claw-in-the-round stage of U2's 360-degree Tour.
Using a dozen forklifts and more than 50 assemblers, the crew was scheduled to work through the night until about 7 a.m. Monday, covering Wayne Day Field with the arena-worthy aluminum flooring from the north end zone to the far 40-yard-line.
That's where the stage will rest, as it spreads across the field and rises up over the light towers at Carter-Finley's East and West stands.
By Monday, the crew will begin unloading the unique stage, which is visible from all sides and has a retractable eight-sided video screen that serves as a canopy for the band. Eventually, four cranes and another dozen forklifts will be whirring away on the same field where Russell Wilson tore up Pittsburgh's defense for four touchdown throws and 322 passing yards.
The RBC Center's Arena West parking lot became a truckstop Saturday night, and Sunday evening a full fleets of 18-wheelers were quietly sleeping in a darkened corner. By Friday, some 128 tractor trailers will unload their small portion of the stage to be transported into Carter-Finley.
Follow the progress of the two-week set up and tear down of the stage in this space throughout the process. For up-to-date information regarding tickets, parking and other concert details, visit here.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
