Case Study -- Cotton Bowl Stadium Two-Day Event -- Texas State Fair Dixie Chicks Concert Latin Music Festival Dallas, Texas

Application Period -- Eight days.

Coverage -- 80,000 square feet.

Weight / Force Levels -- Estimated 45,000 attendees, 13,000 on floor, plus concession operations.

Transportation Logistics -- Three 48-foot flatbed trucks transported 80,000 square feet of Forum Floor from San Francisco to Dallas in three days.  Two forklifts unloaded each truck in less than one hour.  This ability to rapidly deploy was crucial.  The Texas State Fair was active and completely surrounding the Cotton Bowl stadium.  Trucks were required to enter at 7:00 a.m., offload and be off the grounds prior to 9:00 a.m., when gates opened and the public entered.

Installation Timeline -- A ten-man crew commenced installation at approximately 11:00 a.m. Sunday morning and worked until approximately 8:00 p.m.  The crew returned the next morning, Monday, and the installation was substantially complete by 5:00 p.m.  Additional minor adjustments were made throughout the week to accommodate forklift operations and stage building logistics.  Eight days later, after the events, the crew completed total roll-up and cleared the field in eight hours.

Maneuverability / Adaptability -- Of particular benefit to this application was the ability to move the floor within minutes.  After the material was set in place, forklifts required access to various areas of the field, for instance to the large control structure at the 50-yard line.  The floor was easily rolled out of the way and a plywood road laid to protect the sod.  After vehicles completed operations, the plywood was removed and the floor was quickly rolled back into place.

After the Dixie Chicks concert Saturday and before the Latin festival Sunday, within 30 minutes the sideline edge of the floor was pulled back approximately 15 feet and plywood set to allow access of a heavy vehicle to service portable toilets.  After removal of the plywood roadway, in less than 30 minutes the edge of the floor was rolled back into place.

Unlike some competitors' products, such as the one-meter square panels which require eight 40-foot flatbeds to transport, consume several times the man hours to install, are manually carried onto the field and are locked into place at each corner, Forum Floor is a highly adaptable, highly mobile system.  And, most important, it nurtures the sod.

Results -- After the floor was down for four days at the Cotton Bowl (with no rain those days or immediately prior) at 1:00 p.m. on a sunny day the grass under the flooring was moist to the touch.  Due to the material's greenhouse-like effect, after a full eight days of coverage, two events with heavy attendee traffic and dancing, the condition of the sod was actually improved.

Cotton Bowl Field from Install to Event Pre-Show