I said "good stadiums for soccer." Having actually been to Portland pre-renovations, I can tell you it was quirky and cool, but not a situation you would call "good for soccer." When Kansas City was in Community America ballpark, no, that was not conducive to soccer, either. Never went to Puerto Rico, but it never looked good. The renovation plans look sweet, though. And they're working on making Al Lang better, but you can't honestly tell me it's a good situation. No they don't. Portland does. Kansas City built a brand new soccer-specific stadium. It'll still be on the wrong side of the Bay. But enjoy. And I didn't realize Telus was near downtown and that their baseball team wasn't going to play this year. Given how bad their other options are, if they can sod Telus and it's in a good location, this could be better for Edmonton than Foote or Clarke.
Baseball stadiums for MLS may be back, except for Portland, which worked out well so far. But for D2, a baseball field (if they fix the astro turf in the infield) will be better than Footyfield by far. Not perfect, but in D2 and below, things are not perfect.
What? "May be back?" What? Portland is no longer a baseball stadium. It's got very little of its former baseball-ness left. Agreed. If they get one surface consistent, it'll be no worse than a lot of other places and a hell of a lot better than where they've been playing.
Location wise Telus Field isn't bad. It's just off downtown, down in the river valley and quite scenic. The LRT doesn't run there, but there is tons of parking and with their game times traffic wouldn't be an issue. Not really sure it would convert real well for soccer, with the FieldTurf infield and with the setup fans would be a fair ways from the field (though they would be nicely elevated). Wouldn't be ideal by any measure, but in the end it would probably be better than Foote Field, and with the exception of a couple ball tournaments they'd have run of the place all summer. Would be an interesting experiment to move there. Could even be the impetus to tear out the FieldTurf... since affiliated ball has left and won't be returning any time soon, the independent leagues don't typically start as early in the spring, making an all-grass field much more feasible for baseball.
What would it cost, who would pay for it and, forgive me, but how well can a grass field grow and be maintained in Alberta?
Not sure what it would cost, they just converted Commonwealth Stadium to FieldTurf a few years ago and it cost about 2.6M... that's a larger scale job and probably more tricky, so for Telus Field I'd guess anywhere from 500K-1M. If it was to happen I'd think the team would have to agree to a long-term lease with the city, and the two would probably be splitting the costs, and do some other upgrading to the facility (not saying this is a likelihood, just a possibility, and a small one at that). Before Telus Field, the AAA team played on the same site in John Ducey Park, it had grass. The big issue with the grass is spring thaw, and that's dependant on the weather. By May grass fields are usually fine, but if you have to play in April it can be a bit hit and miss if there is a late thaw... on the other hand this winter has been incredibly mild, and grass fields will probably be good-to-go by late March.... whereas most years they'd still be under snow, and even after the snow is gone it still takes a couple weeks to firm up.
Grass is just fine in Edmonton from May through October. April and November are problem months. It is usually too cold/wet/snowy to have a playable grass field. Telus Field got a turf infield because the AAA Trappers started their season in April. Commonwealth got turf because for late season CFL games and playoff games in November the grass was in really bad shape.
Telus will be hosting baseball tournaments in August (Canadian LL CHampionships & Women's Baseball World Cup) which conflict with home games FCE has at the same time.
all I have to say is a converted baseball stadium is way better than Foote field or any stadium with football lines on the pitch.
Seems like FC Edmonton is heading to Clarke according to Ilja Van Leerddam's blog. Apparently the contracts are signed and bleachers ordered. I think this is the best option for them and can be a nice setup, like the Vancouver Whitecaps Empire Field was, if done right which I think they will do. Telus field excited me at first as an option but is just too big at 9000 seats and the atmosphere will be much better at Clarke with its projected 5000 seats that they will probably have. Hopefully it morphs into a SSS for 2015's FIFA tournament.
Yeah, Swangard Stadium which had a great atmosphere considering it was either sold out or close to capacity much of the time in the 90's until 2010 before the move.
I have a field turf question... At BC Place, Commonwealth and CenturyLink, they have green artificial turf and paint the football lines for football games, then wash the lines off and paint soccer lines. Clarke has the football lines are part of the turf. The white lines are actually white fake grass embedded in the turf. Can the permanent white football lines be painted green for FC Edmonton matches? Then wash off the green paint to reveal the football lines for the Huskies/Wildcats? I guess it is possible, but does anybody actually do this?
Very few people I know of have ever been able to successfully pull off the "obscure the lines with paint" trick. I think the Chicago Fire tried in their first couple of games at what was then Cardinal Stadium in Naperville back in 2002, but found it to be problematic. I figure it could be done. How cost-effectively, I don't know. How well it would work, I don't know.
So, it's 19 days until the season kicks off & 34 until the first home game for the Eddies. Where are they playing the home games - any idea of the official announcment for Clarke?
I think the announcement will be this week. Someone who went in to the FC Edmonton office to pick up there season tickets on Thursday said the guy in the office said they will definately be playing at Clarke Stadium. I can hardly wait to hear the announcement and the specifics of the stadium setup!
Yes! FC Edmonton will announce Thursday afternoon their stadium location as well as unveil the new Addidas Uniforms. http://the11.ca/category/nasl-usl/
I really hope the stadium change will help improve the attendance for the team! Also, glad they are finally ready to announce it. They were making me nervous!
Its Clarke stadium with some additional seating and it will have football lines. looking forward to seeing the kits though.
There's a cell phone pic of a couple players in the new kits doing promotional shots on the ESG boards. They're Black/Black/Black with a bit of Blue trim.
Thank god. Montreal and Vancouver already did blue so a third blue team in Canada seemed rather silly. Hopefully the full black will be FCE's default kit now.