The purpose of qualifying, or pre-qualifying, Sports Field Contractors is to provide the end-user (Owner) a quality sports facility. The intent is not to restrict the number of bidders, but to restrict the number of bidders to only those who are experienced in constructing quality sports field projects and have the proper equipment, financial stability, insurance and capacity to Bond a project. In today’s economy, it is imperative an Owner ensures he gets a quality sports field contractor who specializes in the construction of sports field development. Use of Qualifying, or Pre-Qualifying, Sports Field Contractors eliminates the problem when using the lowest bid process in getting a contractor who does not have requisite experience to complete the project.

There are many ways to qualify or pre-qualify contractors. Two (2) ways to qualify the Sports Field Contractor are:

1. The Owner published pre-qualifying criteria for a particular project, advertises this pre-qualification through their normal project notification media and has all pre-qualifications submitted at least thirty days prior to date of the proposal/bid. The Owner then qualifies those Sports Field Contractors authorized to submit a proposal on the particular project. This ensures the Owner only receives proposals/bids from highly qualified sports field contractors.
2. The Owner requires qualification criteria submitted along with the proposal/bid. Owner then selects the most qualified sports field contractor who has the most responsive and reasonable proposal/bid.

There are various medians to publish qualification criteria. Two common types of Qualification Statements are:

1. Proposer/bidder submits an AIA Document A305 Contractor’s Qualification Statement. It is highly recommended that an attachment for additional requirements to the AIA Document be required. Information that may be pertinent to the Owner to qualify a Sports Field Contractor that is not covered by the AIA A305 could be made an Attachment to the AIA Document A305. An example of the Attachment would be the following:
   
   ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS FOR AIA DOCUMENT A305, CONTRACTOR’S QUALIFICATION STATEMENT
   
   The following requirements shall be made part of the provisions of AIA Document A305 and shall be included as if originally included herein.
   
   EXPERIENCE:
   
   3.5.2 On a separate sheet of paper, list at least two (2) complete athletic field projects a year over the past five consecutive years, for a total of ten projects, {state the field requirements, for example: “with eight inch to twelve inch (8” – 12”) depth sand based rootzone fields, not natural soil fields with sand added as an amendment:” or “with an underdrain system, six inch (6”) stone base and synthetic turf installation.”}
   
   Project Name
   Project’s Complete Address (include Zip)
   Owner’s Name
   Owner’s Complete Address (include Zip)
   Owner’s Telephone Area code and Number
   Owner’s Current Contact Person
   
   3.5.3 On a separate sheet, list laser technology and equipment and other specialized Sports Field Construction Equipment owned and/or leased.
   
   3.6.1 The Sports Field Contractor shall have a Certified Field Builder, as certified by the American Sports Builders Association (ASBA), on staff. Provide resume(s) and copy of certification of all Certified Field Builders on staff.
   
   
1. Owner prepares their own Application for Qualification/Pre-Qualification. It should have the same basic elements as the AIA Document A305 Contractor’s Qualification Statement plus any additional information the Owner thinks pertinent to this project in order to best judge the qualification of the potential proposer/bidder.
   
   Experience is extremely important in having a qualified Sports Field Contractor perform the work on any athletic field construction or renovation project. Experience is much like a recipe to bake a cake. If you gave a recipe to bake a cake to a baker and to a person who does not cook, who would you prefer to provide you the cake? Project specifications do not always give you the construction sequence and understanding (the recipe) as to how to build the athletic facility. This comes with experience and knowledge of the sports field construction industry.