NEWS

50 Shades of Gray, but only 1 is Smokey.

50 Shades of Gray, but only 1 is Smokey.

Is gray the new orange at the University of Tennessee?

No, orange remains the Big Color on Campus in Knoxville, but a classy charcoalhue -- dubbed Smokey gray --made its debuton Tennessee alternate football jerseys two years ago. Now Barksdale Tennis Stadium sports thenew team color with handsome gray courts and bright orange playing lines.

Read more
Cracked courts

Cracked courts

The term crack filling is a misnomer. Crack “covering” or “bridging” is actually what takes place. It is impossible to completely “fill” the cracks with standard materials applied at the surface.

Read more

Synthetic Turf and Health Issues

As I am in the synthetic turf installation business I closely watched the original NBC news clip and the follow up clip on last night's news (October 23rd). The original clip cites possible negative health effects of long term contact with the black rubber infill that is common in synthetic turf sports fields. The follow up story highlights a catholic school that, after seeing the original NBC story, decided to forgo using the black recycled crumb rubber for Nike Grind, ground up running shoes. This strikes me as an obvious overreaction.

Read more

Running Tracks and Cutting Corners

There is no magic needed when building a running track facility. No secret recipes, no mystical potions.

BUT there is a good deal of specific knowledge, hard work and experience that are required to build one correctly from the ground up. Choose your contractor carefully. Check some references and ask other schools with great facilities. Then open the lines of communication throughout construction so that you understand what’s taking place.

Read more

Cracks!

We are getting so many calls from tennis court owners who are concerned about cracking on their courts.Why do so many tennis courts have cracks??There are lots of older asphalt tennis courts out there with cracking. As the underlying asphalt pavement ages it naturally loses its pliability and becomes more dried out and brittle each year. This means it is more susceptible to cracking as time passes. Any shifting underneath can cause new cracking or expansion of existing. Temperature extremes can do the same.

Read more

Tennis Programs for Kids

Are you looking for healthy activities for young people? Why not tennis? Several factors are coming together to make tennis a viable activity for elementary and middle schools, Boys and Girls Clubs, municipal recreation centers and anyone looking for physical education programming to offer young people.

Read more
Time to Fix Your Running Track?

Time to Fix Your Running Track?

By now you know every square inch of your running track and field. You have been practicing for months and you have seen the track when it's wet, dry, warm and cold. You know it needs work before next season but the problem is you aren't sure exactly what needs to be done. Can the surface be repaired and refinished? Is something more like surgery needed? Or does the entire track need to be demolished and start completely over?

Read more

Better manage your running track..for no $$$!

At many high schools the track is around the football field and thus located within in the football stadium. Everyone calls it the football stadium for a reason – nobody calls it the track stadium!! We all know that football rules so if the track coach doesn’t have a good rapport with the football coach and Athletic Director problems can develop.

Read more

What is 10 and Under Tennis?

What is 10 and Under Tennis? 10 and Under Tennis follows the same logic as other youth sports like baseball or soccer, which use kid-sized courts and kid-sized equipment. Kids learn to play baseball by first playing T-ball; they use shorter, lighter bats and larger, softer balls. Kids learning basketball shoot baskets with kid-sized balls on lowered backboards and they play soccer on smaller fields with smaller goals.

Read more

Adding Futsal to the Fold

Adding Futsal to the FoldFutsal is a down-sized version of soccer, typically contested with five players to a side. The name is a contraction of the Spanish term futbal de salon, meaning indoor soccer. Although the sport was conceived to be played inside, it is now played outdoors as well on fields with dimensions similar to the new ones at Highland Park.

Read more

Facility Planning & Operations: Planning & Design

A tennis court is not a parking lot. A running track is not a street. These statements should be so obvious as to not even warrant mention. But, evidently, they're not obvious to many people embarking on new facility construction. Too many instances occur of tracks and courts being built that don't meet the recommended specifications for their construction...

Read more

Competition Athletic Surfaces Installs PlexiPave PG System To Cap MS State Indoor Tennis Track

It is tough to compete in your league’s indoor tennis season when you don’t have an dedicated indoor tennis facility, but that’s the position Mississippi State coach Per Nilsson found himself in last year. When the Bulldogs moved indoors to McCarthy Gym for the winter, they had to compete for time and space with the university’s robotics and physical education programs. As if that competitive disadvantage wasn’t enough, the retrofitted multi-purpose rubberized floor made the bounce of the tennis ball anything but true.

Read more

Competition Athletic Surfaces Installs Spurtan E Surface On Chattanooga Lookouts Warning Track

AT&T Field, home of the Chattanooga Lookouts, with its brand new Spurtan E warning track installed by Competition Athletic Surfaces

It seems appropriate that a team named the “Lookouts” would pay close attention to their warning track. That may be why Chattanooga’s AA Southern League baseball team called in Competition Athletic Surfaces to re-vamp their perimeter surface.

Read more

Scrappy work goes on

As expected, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team will not hold spring practice at Scrappy Moore Field this year. The Mocs will be at Finley Stadium when the offseason sessions kick off on Feb. 28.

Read more

Three SEC Schools Turn to Competition Athletic Surfaces

[Chattanooga, TN]… Three Southeastern Conference tennis programs recently installed new court surfaces in their varsity facilities, each the work of Chattanooga's Competition Athletic Surfaces. The company successfully won bids to install surfaces at the University of Tennessee, the University of Alabama, and Mississippi State University.

Read more

Putting Old Tires Back on Track

Finding new uses for old tires is a growing trend as the country seeks solutions for one of its tougher waste problems. Used tires have been among the largest and most problematic sources of waste because of the large volume produced -- 250 million generated in the U.S. each year -- and their durability.

Read more

Court Construction & Maintenance Guide

By Mary Helen Sprecher

Racquet Sports Industry.com
March 1, 2007

There are a number of factors to consider when deciding what tennis court accessories and amenities to add.

Anyone who has ever wandered the showroom of a car dealership knows the difference between the base model and the one with all the latest options and extras. And they sure know which one is more fun to drive.

Read more

Scratching the Surface

By Allison Gorman

TN Business Magazine
May 2007

An athletic facilities builder hits its stride

Competition Athletic Surfaces attracted national attention in 2005 for its role in changing the color scheme of the tennis courts at the U.S. Open from standard green to blue and green.

Read more

Competition Athletic Surfaces Installs Rooftop Track At UnumProvident

Installing a seventh of a mile walking track for UnumProvident Corp. has Competition Athletic Surfaces moving up in the world.

The Chattanooga athletic surfacing company specializes in building, resurfacing and repairing running tracks and tennis courts across the Southeast - and does so with notable success, growing from sales of $400,000 to over $3 million since 2000.

Read more

A Complete Guide To Selecting The Right Sports Surface

By Margaret Ahrweiler

The idea of a floor, on the surface, seems pretty simple: something to stand on. Outside, it meant grass or dirt. Add sports and recreation into the mix, though, and it becomes something to stand on, run on, jump on, sit on, roll on, bounce on, fall on, race on, dance on, meet on.

Read more

Showing the Colors

Color affects our lives in almost every way. It can be pleasant and soothing, such as a sky blue or seafoam green; it can signal warning or danger, like a yellow or red light; and different colors can be used to distinguish among a group of items, such as color-coded folders in a file cabinet. Colors can indicate events (red and green at Christmas, black and orange at Halloween), can be a sign of tradition (wearing white for a wedding or black for a funeral), or can describe your emotions (red hot, blue mood, green with envy). Colors are even used to indicate economic levels (a blue-collar worker, a white-collar job).

Read more

Establish Your Identity

Placing logos on court windscreen helps schools, clubs, and parks "brand" their facilities.

By Laurie Black Gross

(Published August 2005)

Mention logos, windscreen, and tennis facilities, and the word "branding" keeps popping up. That word simply means utilizing various marketing methods to link an identity with a specific message in order to set oneself apart from the competition. Branding is, perhaps, the reason behind the growing practice of printing club names and mascots on tennis-court windscreen. But talk long enough about the subject and, sooner or later, everyone gets around to the money issue.

Read more

Badminton, Everyone!

A year ago the gymnasium floor at the Chota Recreation Center couldn't be called feet-friendly, despite its close acquaintance with hoofers, fitness fanatics and badminton buffs. A worn 12-year-old carpet covering a concrete surface wasn't in the least hospitable to feet, elbows, knees, hips and other body parts that made contact with the floor in the busy multi-purpose gymnasium at Tellico Village in upper East Tennessee.

Read more

More Cushion for Your Tennis Player and Bang for Your Buck

When he hired Competition Athletic Surfaces (Chattanooga, TN) to resurface the courts at Manker Patten Tennis Center, Ned Caswell could hardly have been more eager to get the job done. Lee Murray, a principal of Competition Athletic Surfaces, figures he cut 4-5 days off the Manker Patten assignment by spraying, instead of squeegeeing and spreading, the cushiony DecoTurf (Andover, MA) layer onto the newly paved courts.

Read more

Athletic Surface Business Expands its Turf in Area

By Dave Flessner

Business Editor

After five years of building and repairing tennis courts and running tracks across the Southeast, Competition Athletic Surfaces Inc., is reaching new heights this summer.

The Chattanooga paving company recently installed artificial turf for a rooftop garden at Erlanger’s T.C. Thompson Children’s Hospital and soon will build a walking and jogging path on a repaired roof atop one of UnumProvident’s downtown office buildings.

Read more

US Open Tennis Surface

Competition Athletic Surfaces helped debut a bold new look for the U.S. Open that may create as much buzz at this year's tournament as the Williams sisters' ensembles or Andy Roddick's headgear.

The 2007 U.S. Open, set for August 27 through September 9, will feature blue inner courts and green outer courts, marking the first change of court colors since the event moved to Flushing, NY in 1978.

Read more

Ready to Get Started?

Call us at (423) 847-8330 or Send a Message