ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. – Cleanup at the Creve Coeur Park Soccer Complex started this week after a tornado ripped through the fields last month. 

“A lot of these clubs have a myriad of teams and those teams are just scrambling to find different locations to try to get by while we’re closed,” said Mike Hayes, Operations Manager of Creve Coeur Soccer Complex.

Hayes said while the full scope of the damage is being assessed, work began this week on repairs.

“Initially with fields one through five, our championship field and the quad next to it. The hope is that they will be ready to play on June 13th,” Hayes said. 

Hayes said reopening the fields means peeling them back one layer at a time, starting with the 330,000 pounds of crumb rubber on each field. 

“It’s like your carpet at home; your fibers are either going to lay down or are they going to lay up. There is a pile height of two and three-quarters. this rubber is put into the fields in the beginning when they were first installed to provide shock absorption and a base,” Hayes said.

He said crews will cut the existing turf, roll it up, remove it and begin the layering process all over again. 

He said the estimated cost of the repairs is around $8 million. 

“It’s kind of an interesting thing to be able to see what the fields really consist of; it is not just rolled-out carpet on a turf,” Hayes said.