By Tien-Shun Lee
The St. John's University football field was vandalized the last weekend of April by perpetrators who cut out the letters “T” and “O” from the university's logo, which was inlaid into the center of the field's man-made turf, university officials said.
“Why do people do these things? It baffles the logical mind,” St. John's spokesman Jody Fisher said.
No suspects have been found, Fisher said.
To repair the damage, university officials contracted Southwest Recreation, which laid down the field's Stadia II turf, also known as FieldTurf, eight years ago. The company will cut the entire nine-yard diameter circular logo out of the field's turf. The turfless area is sectioned off with barriers and yellow tape.
The replacement turf will not be inlaid with the university's logo because the process of inlaying, which creates a permanent, non-fading design, is too expensive, said Kathy Meehan, the associate vice president for athletics at St. John's.
University sports officials are still deciding whether to spray paint a logo onto the field once the turf is replaced, or to leave it blank, Meehan said.
The damage to the field will not affect games or practices played by St. John's teams because sports at the university are mostly finished for the school year, said Dominic Scianna, the associate athletic director for sports communication. University sports will not start up again until August.
The New York Freedoms, a professional soccer team that rents out the St. John's football field for games and practices, will be affected by the vandalism, but the team's head coach seemed unperturbed by the incident.
“It's just in the middle, so we just use either side of it – easily done, not a problem,” said David Price, the general manager and head coach of the team, which was scheduled to practice on the field Tuesday night.
The St. John's football stadium was constructed 43 years ago. Originally, the field was made out of grass. Later, it was resurfaced with artificial omniturf and then resurfaced again with the field's present FieldTurf.
FieldTurf is a top-of-the-line playing surface that the New York Giants Stadium was resurfaced with last month.
Reach reporter Tien-Shun Lee by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com, or call 718-229-0300, ext. 155.
