Ok, so now that it's official that the Dallas Burn will be playing in Southlake for at least 1 season, I decided to make the 15 minute trek to the facility and get a good look at the infamous Dragon Stadium. I was fortunate in that there is a soccer tournament being played this weekend, so for a few bucks I was able to waltz right in and take pictures. I ultimately took 50 pics or so, but I've posted 15 on a very quick and dirty website: http://www.geocities.com/gollum1197/DragonStadium This should give you a pretty good idea of what we're dealing with here. And now for some observations: It's VERY easy to get there. I won't give the exact directions here, but trust me. Unfortunately, getting parked once you're there will be tough since the roads within 1/4th of a mile leave a lot to be desired. Parking will be an issue, but not only are there industrial places nearby who could offer parking, but Mustang-Panther Stadium is darn near close to being within walking distance. If they offer shuttles from there then parking would be almost doubled right off the bat. A sellout of 13,000+ will definately swamp concession stands, I'd wager. There are two stations on the home side, and I assume two on the other. I think there are 4 sets of bathrooms as well. There appears to be a souvenir store when you walk into the home side. Start selling Burn gear! The club seats are nice. Comfy seats with great sightlines and lots of leg room. The 2-story press areas looked nice as well, and there was a conference room by the main home entrance. The bleachers aren't so nice, but man do you get close to the field. I almost got hit by the ball a few times, and would almost be afraid to sit that close when the pros hit the field. The coloring on the turf stands out in the pics, but I didn't mind so much watching a match. I can only hope the field goal uprights will be taken out for Burn matches, and the lines can be covered. FieldTurf (or whatever) is really nice. I was able to sneak on the field at halftime and walk on it. It's like lush indoor/outdoor carpet (I mean that in a good way) with black, rubberish chunks all in it. When I set my foot down the turf didn't grab it like AstroTurf does. I could pivot really easily and not feel it in my knees. Watching the game, it played like grass. Extra stands could definately be added in front of the training rooms, but one problem I noticed was how close the foundation was to the field. The concrete is very close to the goal line, and there was even an attacker who couldn't stop and fell on her butt once her cleats hit the cement. This place could rock if packed with screaming fans. All in all, I was impressed. With added bleachers and no football markings, you wouldn't know it was a high school stadium. It'd even look great on tv. Just visiting the stadium made me feel better about the move, and I look forward to sitting up close for a match (although not TOO close). Oh, well.....just my $0.02 worth........
Thanks for the very informative post. It's the gridiron lines that are the problem and I hope it can be solved. Can anyone bring up a picture of Boston's Nickerson Field? That's a FieldTurf pitch without gridiron lines and for the Breakers games looks very nice. If FieldTurf proves out, maybe more such stadiums sans the permanent gridiron lines are in our future. Looks like a rational solution to me since it's not so costly and could bring about a winning gridiron/soccer partnership.
Dragon's football lines are mostly painted on, but the 5-yard lines and looks like maybe the large white "bench area" patches are actually white-colored Field Turf carpet. You can't cover them up, and they will show poorly on TV. Just some info from someone with sports turf experience... Good luck this season, at least now MLS will have 3 profitable teams in 2003 (Dallas, Columbus, LA). It's worth it if all our teams get custom stadiums. See you at RFK!
Great job lone star. I think they should make that side you were on the "reserved side" and let us crazy bastards and the inferno (all from GA) sit on the other side and call that "GA".
Good job lone star! Unfortunately, today's freak blizzard kept me from dropping in this afternoon. Imo try to sneak in and run some patterns & cutting drills on it later this wk to see if it plays like grass. The burn staff on 3rddegree.net claim the pitch is of a higher quality than some of the MLS' grass stadiums. geocities is temporarily down so here's a pic from the CISD page & a press release regarding some of the topic discussed like alcohol & parking. press link
Re: Re: Dragon Stadium Pictures nickerson field is on the campus of boston university and BU no longer has a football team
1st let me say that we at 3rd Degree are not Burn Staff. We are 100% independent and totally free to write what we like on 3rd Degree. Peter Welpton does produce the Burn radio show, but that is not his "job" Peter works for someone completely different, as do I. http://www.3rddegree.net/ Our Connections in the Burn front office, coaching staff, and team gives us inside access and information few other get. This allows us to be accurate in our reports and get information to the fan directly from the Burn if we feel it is important. But we report it with total and complete independence. I think our track record of accuracy and open unbiased coverage of the Burn is unmatched. Second "Field Turf," the brand of turf in SLC, is fabulous stuff. I don't like turk either. Turf sucks, lines on the feild suck. But I can handle it for two years. And "Feild Turf" is way better than any other turf I have run around on.
I received a seating chart from the Burn the other day and was a bit puzzled by one thing. According to the seating chart, the press box side is the north side, the other main stands are on the south side, and the temporary bleachers will be on the east side. Can someone comment on whether this is the actual case, or could the Burn have made a typo in their seating chart? Every football field I've ever been to has its main stands on the east and west sides of the field. That way, during day games there's less chance that players will be blinded by the sun. But is Dragon Stadium one of the few exceptions to the norm?
Why do you think the are moving the start time of the summer games back to 8 o'clock? The charts are correct.