One Spokane Stadium is Coast to Coast Turf project

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As a youngster growing up in Spokane and later student at Lewis and Clark High School, Steve Webb fondly remembers the now flattened earth that once was Joe Albi Stadium.

It is then, perhaps, appropriate that the company Webb once patched together with used pieces of artificial grass — Coast to Coast Turf — can now count the newly opened One Spokane Stadium as its most recent projects.

“I know we’re just very excited to be part of this (stadium project) being born and raised in Spokane,” Webb said.

The ribbon cutting took place Sept. 26 and its first games, soccer and football, Sept. 28.

The product that Coast to Coast laid is the latest generation of AstroTurf Rootzone 3D, and is what Webb said is an “all green field” void of marking specific to one sport or another — football, soccer or lacrosse.

With a “green field,” a robot comes in and paints everything using GPS. Then when it is time to have another event, lacrosse let’s say, a similar device scrubs off the paint and a new layout is provided.

Lumen Field in Seattle where the Seahawks and Sounders share the field employs this process.

A great deal has transpired in the years since Webb launched his company.

Back in 2002 when Gonzaga Prep was installing artificial turf on its new football field, Webb, then a stockbroker, got to know the crew who were laying down the SprinTurf field.

Staying in touch, one day he got a call asking if he was interested in the tear-off of a field.

Webb, who played baseball at Washington State University and had developed a network of coaches in the Northwest, got in touch with them offering deals on sections of turf for batting cages, in the batter’s circle and elsewhere.

With the experience he has gotten doing small jobs, Webb was told he should start a business installing turf.

The Spokane installation is one of several in Eastern Washington for Coast to Coast which established its headquarters in Spokane off Interstate-90 but has since relocated to the Seattle area.

New fields in Wellpinit and Freeman are both Coast-To-Coast projects, as were Eastern’s Roos Field replacement in 2020 and G-Prep in 2018.

Projects for Washington State’s practice field, the University of Washington at Husky Stadium and Idaho are also part of the company portfolio. So is the baseball field at Gonzaga University which replaced traditional grass over the off season in 2022-23.

Webb said artificial turf is “kind of like a no brainer anymore,” when one considers the maintenance — and water usage. Turnaround during inclement weather is another strong selling point.

“It can be raining out or if there’s snow, you can plow the fields,” Webb said, making it useable in a short period of time.

In general numbers, transforming traditional grass to artificial turf would cost $800,000 to $1 million in site prep plus about $500,000 for the turf itself. That surface will last between 10 to 14 years.

As with almost anything, that life is dictated by “how well you maintain it,” Webb said.

Artificial turf celebrated its 50th birthday in 1966 with the first installation at the Astrodome in Houston, Texas, coining the term AstroTurf. Now there are many turf companies across the nation, most located in the traditional center of household carpet products in Georgia.

The Coast to Coast location on the West Plains is where the company sells its used products. Further information on the company can be found by visiting http://www.c2cturf.com.