Interview: Anthony Meley on turfing Liberty
The AstroTurf regional sales manager reveals the power of visualization, under-cover competitor analysis and installing Liberty University’s 15 Astroturf fields
Liberty is one of the largest private non-profit Universities in the US. Based in Virginia, just 100 miles away from AstroTurf’s sales director, Anthony Meley, the two have created a special bond and a sports campus to boot. We caught up with AstroTurf’s natural-born salesperson and former lacrosse player to find out how the partnership began and how it has taken shape more than a decade later.
On what drew him into the sports surfaces business...
I played lacrosse in college and it was my coach who enticed me into the world of sport surfaces. He was already at AstroTurf so I had some company insight and when the opportunity came my way, I grabbed it with both hands. It wasn’t quite my first job out of college but almost. It’s been 15 years, and I haven’t looked back.
On what’s special about Liberty...
Liberty is unique. They have around 13,000 students on campus but then a staggering additional 170,000 online students. As a non-profit they have to reinvest all that endowment money. They are serious about their sport and that presented a huge opportunity for us.
On how the partnership began...
It all started with baseball. I was involved with hosting the Big South baseball tournament that was held at High Point University, and Liberty were coming. At the time, they were still playing on grass but other big colleges like Wake and Duke had made the move to turf, so I knew this was a big opportunity to show them how transformational synthetic turf could be for the school.
I had visuals created of what the college campus would look like if they made the transition to synthetic turf. It was the perfect conversation starter. I sat down with the director and that was the beginning of a partnership that started with us providing the turf for their $24m baseball stadium upgrade and has now been running for over a decade.
“We’ve proven our product and our service and grown our presence at Liberty to 15 turfs.”
On opening more doors...
When I first started on campus it was hard to get a foothold. Two of our competitors were already there. But because of the baseball, I became known as ‘the turf guy’. One of the coaches used to pull me into his office and chew my ear about everything that was wrong with their fields. It wasn’t until the third visit that I told him that I wasn’t the right guy. The fields he was complaining about were our competitors’. But I now had a great understanding of all his pain points. The door was wide open, and we delivered new turf that answered their issues.
On AstroTurf and Liberty today...
Since those early days we’ve proven our product and our service and grown our presence at Liberty to 15 turfs including:
The baseball stadium
The football outdoor practice area
Four recreational fields
The football stadium
Men’s lacrosse
Women’s lacrosse
Two indoor soccer facilities
The softball stadium
Women’s field hockey
Indoor baseball/softball
Indoor football
All of these facilities sport our proven AstroTurf 3D352 product with the exception of the field hockey turf which is Poligras. In addition, we’ve provided four indoor Laykold courts.
On Liberty’s campus...
It is such an impressive campus. In my 14 years of being there, it has never been without a crane. They are always building and investing in their facilities. A lot of money goes into their programs and we’re very proud to be part of what they have established.
On Liberty’s sport program...
Over the years, the investment has paid off with success across the Liberty Flames sport program. In football they are ranked 12th. They played in the Fiesta Bowl which is the next level down from the playoffs. They lost to Oregon in the end who were ranked 6th at the time, so that’s pretty impressive.
In my sport, lacrosse, they have an excellent men’s club programme with a dedicated stadium and locker room complete with mahogany lockers crafted on site. That’s how seriously they take it. And in women’s field hockey, the team made it to the national championships.
On what’s next...
They only have one grass field left on the whole campus and that’s their soccer stadium. It’s only a matter of time...!