The New England Patriots announced today that the Patriots are removing what's left of the grass field at Gillette Stadium, and is installing FieldTurf. This of course, means that at least until the New England Revolution get a rumored SSS, that their games will be played on the Fake Stuff. I can understand WHY (Gilette is a popular concert destination, and the Revs have to share the field with the pointyball team for a lot of the season, with this year adding a movie shoot at the damn field (yup, more pointyball stuff)) and the field's been a disgrace by the end of the last two seasons.. but still.. not happy. See my sig for what I think of the move.
That's too bad. I don't think it's a good move for either the pointy ball players nor the soccer players.
the new-fangled field turf stuff actually does a fairly good job of mimicking grass. I actually got walk around and run on some of it as NYC had set up around 4 soccer fields, with field turf with that rubber ball base, in the park around Shea Stadium. Pretty neat and you didn't have any of the sticking problems you had with carpet. IMO, in the end field turf will probably end up being safer for players than grass. Softer, better footing, and drains amazingly well in poor weather.
The problem is that it will likely be cut down to pointyball levels, not to preferred soccer levels, and Giants Stadium (which is FieldTurf to NFL standards) isn't THAT much better then carpet... lot of uneven bounces etcetera.
The more important thing is for him to tell us where this professional league is that plays on fields of that kind, kind bud, and also how we may get jobs over there. is it the eredivisie?
That's why we'll have to see how Toronto FC plays with their turf next season, as it's FieldTurf that is NOT cut down. It looks pretty good from the pics I saw.
Agreed. If it was at the toronto's level, then I wouldn't be as pissed about it (although I'd still be unhappy, the beautiful game was meant to be played on grass, not fake stuff), but we know that the pointyball team's gonna get their way on what the field's gonna be like, and it's gonna be one or two steps above the pooltable that is artifical turf.
The field turf will be a down grade over grass but a significant upgrade over the sand the Revs have to play on every fall. Andy
So now the eastern conference has three teams on the plastic to the zero in the western. I thought it was the west coast that was famous for its fakeness.
No, that would mean equating gay with stupid or lame when in fact I'm sure he meant to use it as a way of describing a non-naturally occuring field that is more opennly accepted in the Northeast, Canada, and some pockets of the Northwest, but not so much in the South and Midwest.
Paetec park's field played like a fast grass pitch when the Revs played there in the USOC. I thought it was fine. The Pats come first at Gillette. I fear the worst (i.e. gridiron rug the whole year).
My Revs ticket rep lied to me--he swore up and down just days ago that no such thing was even thinkable. So I renewed. Guess the joke's on me....
At Quest Field, the Seattle Sounders have a nice (?) clean field turf before the Seahawks start their season.
If they ever want to use their stadium for FIFA sanctioned games it will have to be unmarked like Qwest Field.
Permanant or not, do we really think they are going to remove the lines for soccer matches? Weak move.. For BOTH sports.
How evident are the gridiron marks in Giants Stadium in the summer? 100% wrong. The Field Turf will be a SIGNIFICANT upgrade(this can not be overstated) as compared to the dirt/sand that they have been playing on every fall. Andy