http://www.nj.com/sports/ledger/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/104408357738940.xml http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/sports/5083328.htm I, for one, am glad. That grass field was pretty much useless.
Again, I'd like to point out that grass never got a fair chance at Giants Stadium. The grass tray system is a temporary installation. Beyond that, they never removed the original Astroturf field, so there's nothing on which the grass can grow. BEYOND THAT, there are three tennants playing on the field. Two football teams playing on a living surface that doesn't grow naturally at this time of year. What do they want?
That's the main problem. Two teams playing their home games in one stadium. Tough for any grass to take, let alone a grass field in New Jersey during the winter. FieldTurf is fine for multi-team stadiums and will hold out. It was time for a change. They had spent 6-7 million dollars since 2000 to install/maintain that grass field. Now, it'll only take 1 million to install that FieldTurf which should last a good 7-10 years. Time to move forward. Heinz Field in Pitt should start to think about their field as well. That grass wasn't holding up very well either.
I have no problem with Field Turf as long as it doesn't rip knees up and doesn't have football lines on it. Grass is great but it's clear it can't take the usage that it get's in the Meadowlands.
The grass tray system was not a temporary installation, it was more of an experiment to see if a modular grass tray field could work. Clark Contracting did an excellent job of creating this system. Moreover the trays had heating piping installed beneath to allow the grass theoretically to grow during the winter months. My intuition tells me the NJSEA did follow the prescribed maintenance procedures. At the start of the past two MLS seasons, the field was a disgrace. No work was done to it. Complaints from the Metrostars and E-mails from the undersigned were met with the typical well we have a lot of events and the field will recover. They simply choose to let things slide and not spend the money tray replacement and watering. Joe Clark stated prior to the initial installation that the system needed 1 to 1 1/2 spare fields of trays (to be grown in the parking lot of the stadium) for replacement due to use. Truthfully, that recommendation was never followed through on. Only 1/2 a field was grown and it was used up during the NFL-XFL season. In fact the worst thing that ever happened to the modular grass field was the XFL. The field never recovered from the XFL season of almost two years ago. It destroyed the field and the NJSEA never did the required maintenance (replacement of damaged trays) during the growing season to allow the grass to develop roots and become hardy. If you recall the first season, the field was in pretty good shape even by the end of the NFL season. If it were just the Giants, Jets and Metrostars, the field would be okay. However, Giants Stadium schedules a lot of concerts where the field is covered. It has a detrimental affect on the grass. Field Turf is a good product. You can slide tackle without fear of raspberries and the ball runs very true. My only reservation is temperature in the summer and bounce. The ball does bounce higher than a normal grass field and you do get small granules of rubber on your skin if you fall to the ground.