Mumford and Sons isn’t a band necessarily known for destroying buildings, a la Motley Crue, but the British rock stars were recently associated with damage to a ballpark. A minor league baseball team based in Missoula, Montana was actually forced to cancel home games due to the damage to their field. Team officials say that Mumford and Sons caused the issues during a recent concert.
According to the Billings Gazette, damage to portions of right and center field has caused safety issues and has forced the Missoula Osprey to postpone some home games while moving others to Great Falls. Mumford and Sons held a concert at the ballpark on Aug. 11, setting up the stage in the outfield. The weight from the stage and all of the equipment reportedly condensed the dirt and the sod, and then two inches of rain seeped into the ground and created what has been described as a “muddy mess.”
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“This concert has really put a burden on our center field,” Matt Ellis, Osprey vice president, said. “It’s really chewed up. Our grounds crew has been working almost 24-7 for the last week to try to get this center field playable.
“Unfortunately, we cannot get a buy-off from both the Diamondbacks [Osprey] and the White Sox [Voyagers] to play. There’s safety issues and we acknowledge that and respect that. We thought we were going to get it in today but there’s a couple of spots where we just can’t guarantee no injuries if a player is running on it.”
The ground has dried from the sun, but underneath the surface is mud that makes it unsafe for the players to run at full speed. Originally, the grounds crew added topsoil in hopes of repairing the damage, but this only affected the surface area. The ground underneath is still wet.
The team officials hope to play the scheduled games against the Idaho Falls Chukars on Tuesday and Wednesday, but a final decision has not been made. The grounds crew will first have to ensure that the outfield is in a spot where players can safely participate.
“The field is better tonight than it was this morning,” Osprey marketing director Taylor Rush said about the outfield conditions. “With sun in the forecast and all the help we’re getting in town from local landscaping and sod experts and from our ops team, really they’re giving it all they can at this point.”
No matter what happens, however, the Osprey face a condensed schedule of games heading toward the end of the regular season. With games on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday being postponed, the team will have less time to rest between matchups, which will only add stress to the roster.
