Considering there are teams in Russia, the Netherlands, France, and Italy (including one who used turf while they were in Serie A) who already use turf I think we're already there.
That's good to know, but I'll wait and see how the actual surface looks and plays after the Falcons get done playing on it. Lines are only one aspect. I'm actually more concerned with how a surface plays after a football team got busy on it. Whether it's Hou or Sea or Por or NE, the surfaces have played worse during football season or in the days following a football game.
Don't be so quick to include Minnesota. The leading Minnesota option isn't Wilf, it's the Minnesota United group in a new SSS.
Did you see Toronto's field the last few weeks? Horrible Minnesota could very well be worse. How the hell are you going to play on grass in Minnesota during November, December or March? A place that cold needs turf I think.
November's fine. Geez, we cut the grass in November. Expect snow after the first week of December. As for February or March, if they are stupid enough to play in that weather, turf or no turf it will be awful. Even so, its a couple games. So you can have a couple awful games, or you can have a playing surface that sucks all of the time. Not a difficult choice for me.
Has anybody walked on he artificial stuff recently? Even what the Silverbacks have seems quite comfy to just walk on. The ball will take off more than on grass, but this stuff is good enough that NFL teams aren't afraid To use it with their very expensive investments. This isn't the days of AstroTurf with career-ending seams at the yard lines. Artificial turf could possibly be made even better than grass. All the rubber involved in FieldTurf sounds like a lot more shock absorption than the dirt base of grass. Always a subject for a good study.
Yeah, but the problem is that there's "soccer turf" and "gridiron turf". Soccer likes a softer, thicker turf that absorbs more impact from running and does a better job of slowing the ball down. That's what Portland has, and there aren't too many complaints. Gridiron football likes a harder, thinner turf. (I'd love it if someone would explain why. Easier for the quarterback to pivot on?) So while even the NFL stuff is certainly not your father's AstroTurf, that doesn't mean it's optimal for soccer. ------RM
Missed the original broadcast, but thought that this makes for interesting discussion: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/how-safe-artificial-turf-your-child-plays-n220166
TL,DR version = Overprotective parents with bad genetics blame turf for their snowflakes cancer despite there being no proof. Morons.
Wow.. Okay.. She's collected the name of 38 players that have gotten cancer and it is turf's fault? While she's certainly not collected them all, the number she's currently collected is well below the cancer incident rate for kids under 20. http://seer.cancer.gov/faststats/selections.php?series=age Year Rate Modeled Rate 199015.678615.557 199116.401415.6514 199216.070615.7464 199316.160615.8419 199415.592115.938 199515.790116.0347 199616.216.132 199715.742216.2298 199816.292616.3283 199915.698716.4274 200016.882316.527 200117.086416.6273 200217.521316.7282 200315.687116.8297 200416.431916.9318 200517.808117.0345 200615.688117.1378 200716.930217.2418 200817.615417.3464 200917.635317.4516 201017.50317.5575 201117.850517.664 Not that more research would be a bad thing, of course.
You mean the rubber pellets, right? Does this mean all of the sport courts made from rubber are causing cancer as well? And all of the playgrounds with rubber wood chips are causing cancer? Oh my gosh, what have we done to the children?! [/sarcasm]
Novara Calcio played only one year (2011-12) in the Serie A on synthetic grass in the Stadio Silvio Piola and then they were relegated the very next year and are now militating in the 3rd tier, Serie C. Every opposing player and coach that I listened to in interviews after their games absolutely hated playing on that crap and all the sports pundits criticized it every chance they got. I doubt they will be back in the Serie A anytime soon and if they do make it back up (which I doubt) , I'm sure there will be a backlash about replacing their turf.
Interesting enough, that was one of the problems with their turf field. It was not replaced prior to the Serie A season and was several seasons old at that time.
I don't think the turf contributed to their downfall considering their less than mediocre roster but it surely didn't help them get any newer and/or better players.
Not what I was talking about. But rather saying that the poor condition of the field in the Serie A season was that it wasn't new.
Brutal. I mightily hope Minnesota United will have a grass field. Is there speculation about the Sounders and C-Link? I kind of find it hard to believe they'd sign up for another THIRTEEN YEARS if there wasn't some serious interest from both parties to replace the turf with grass.
OK, i'm an Impact fan. I saw the Jesus goal live. But blaming any single injury on turf is nonsense. It was a freak accident that can happen anywhere. While the body of scientific literature on turf injury does indicate different types of injuries on turf, there is no evidence to suggest the overall rate is higher or the injuries more severe.
And yet....there they are. Hard to believe that after nearly three years, this thread has not yet accomplished its stated purpose.
The speculation is that the Sounders and Seahawks have agreed to replace the turf with new turf every 4 seasons at a minimum. Sadly this is the current schedule and the turf is a steaming pile of crap (even for turf) after 2 seasons, but at least they have a contractually required minimum. As for swapping out grass. Hahahahahahahahahahahaha. Only if the Seahawks move out of CenturyLink and their lease also runs through 2028.
speaking from a whitecap fan point of view, the problem is not the sports team playing on the turf at BC Place- todays quality of turf is improving year upon year and more teams in euro are also playing on it BC Place turf is now less than 4 years old and looks absolutely terrible for the last 2 years and some players say is the worse turf in MLS; fortunately it will be replaced in May due to the WWC in june- the problem is that the stadium is used for multiple trade shows and other types of entertainment such as motocross, boat shows and concerts; so boards are placed over the turf which compresses the turf and wears it out very quickly; constant driving huge trucks over the turf, etc only makes the impact even worse laying down grass in any multi-function stadium just will not work and 20 soccer games/season will not pay the bills so stadiums built only for soccer and the odd football game (maximum of about 45 days/year at BC Place) is a dinosaur heading to extinction- even FIFA recognizes that and agrees that turf is the wave of the future; there are a few stadiums that have a removeable grass crate system for grass, but that is expensive and requires a lot of storage space we all agree that natural grass is the best, especially if only soccer games are played on it, but the reality of the sport in NA and even europe is that turf will be installed- i would be surprised if grass is used in minnie's new stadium BC place turf should be replaced every 3 years IMO, but probably wont unless the soccer and football teams help pay for it- i dont hold my breath on that agreement happening todays turf is far superior and is getting better with each new hybrid- the problem is the multi-use of the stadium to pay the bills for the other over 300 days when professional soccer and football are not being played
Turf defenders sound to me like the same patronizing folks who said we could never put soccer on TV without commercial breaks. Stockholm syndromites and apes who want to look and smell like the establishment. Bitching about astroturf here may be pointless, but it seems far more ridiculous to come on a soccer fan site and defend the stuff. Even sillier is the noblesse oblige that keeps some of you coming back to this battlefield in your tireless battle against ignorance wherever you encounter it. What's this - MLS is a business?? What, there are turf fields in Europe?? Oh thank you, Crusaders of the Enlightenment! (Was that French enough? I should have capitalized "Establishment" huh?) Seriously, you guys should start a "Keep Turf in MLS" thread because it would bug the SHIT out of me just to see it on regular basis. And anybody like me I bet. Twice as bad as "Get Turf out of MLS" must bug you.