New grass down, ‘decent’ field set

Friday, Jan. 10, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

Now Joe Brunner knows what it's like to re-sod a football field in the middle of a Wisconsin winter.

"It was heavy, dirty, wet and cold," Brunner said Thursday after he and other workers completed the job of rolling 500 tons of new Kentucky bluegrass onto Lambeau Field.

His clothes were covered with mud and his eyes were weary from just two hours of sleep after volunteering to help prepare the field for Sunday's NFC championship game between the Green Bay Packers and the Carolina Panthers.

"We took on a very big project and I think we are very lucky to get it done," Lambeau's field supervisor Todd Edlebeck said. "It is great to be at this point."

If it doesn't get too bitterly cold and the heating coils beneath the field can keep up, the field will be "decent" for Sunday's game, Edlebeck said.

"They should have good footing. They should be able to get their cleats in," he said.

The forecast for Sunday calls for possible early morning below-zero temperatures and a high of about 10 degrees. The wind could make it feel like 20 below, the National Weather Service said.

As the new grass was laid, it was covered with tarps to protect it from the snow and cold, Edlebeck said. Lines will be put on once the snow stops.

The storm is expected to leave up to 5 inches of snow into today, but Edlebeck said there were no plans yet to shovel out the stands.

It usually takes 6 inches of snow to trigger that project, officials said.

* HIGH-PRICED TICKETS: If you're still looking for a ticket to Sunday's AFC championship game, bring money. Scalpers are taking out classified advertisements and encouraging people to call and make their best offer. Some want as much as $500 per ticket. While scraping together that much cash may be a problem, there is no need to worry about breaking the law by buying or selling the tickets in Rhode Island. It's legal to scalp tickets for out-of-state events like the Jacksonville Jaguars-New England Patriots game in nearby Foxboro, Mass. "If you're in Rhode Island and put up a big sign and say, 'I'll pay whatever price for a Massachusetts event,' there is nothing illegal about that," Christopher Shaban, spokesman for the state attorney general's office, said Thursday.