On Nov. 9th approximately 20 members of Real Salt Lake’s first official supporter’s club, the Loyalists, met with Trey Fitz-Gerald, the Senior Director of Marketing & Communications for RSL. He discussed upcoming events and decisions about the team and answered Loyalists’ questions for about 45 minutes. Here is a summary of what he discussed. For the complete article, please go to www.TheLoyalists.com where the article will be available soon. There is not much new information about the planned stadium. Fitz-Gerald stated that there are several possible sites in downtown Salt Lake, and Murray City has been aggressively pursuing possibilities for their city as well. The Murray site has a lot of infrastructure that would be a benefit to the stadium, such as nearby public transportation. The expected date for the new stadium to be completed is still April 2007. There are still discussions going on with local politicians, land owners, etc. Some have speculated that Jon Huntsman, the governor-elect of Utah, may be a valuable asset to the stadium plans, considering his close ties to Dave Checketts. In the meantime, says Fitz-Gerald, the relationship with Rice-Eccles stadium is a very positive one. Although most football coaches have a lot of power over what happens in the stadiums throughout the country, those in charge at RES recognize the value that RSL brings them. They recognize that some of the best soccer events in the country will be happening at RES, including possibly a U.S. Men’s National Team game. Those at RES and RSL have been going over numerous options for making the field more soccer-friendly despite the football lines. The football lines are sewn into the turf, but they have been researching some possibilities of “greening the lines out.” So far, they haven’t had much success, though. If no good solution can be found, fans may have to settle for the lines until the soccer-specific stadium is built.
NO NO NO NO NO!! Please no damn gridiron lines on the pitch. I mean around August and towards the end of the regular season, ok. But throughout the whole season??? I mean it doesn't look that bad from how I'm looking at it. Look at this picture:
They brought in a $30K machine to try some new technique to green it out. It's not like they can just "not paint the lines" there since they're sewn into the turf itself. Sounds like they'll do whatever they can to make it work out, but unless they have magical powers, they'll have to be stuck with whatever technology is available. If you have a good idea, email it to them! They'd love to hear it!
Well I like the fact they are pushing for the sss to be built without the team even being assembled. However I think they are a little optimistic, especially about USMNT games, because the Bruce said he doesn't like playing on the west coast. Maybe, if they are lucky, one game will be played, like at the HDC (US v. Den)
Why cant football be palyed on articial turf and lay some sort of garss on top of that or something. How is it that you play hockey at msg at noon and the lay on the hardwood for basketball in the evening but you cant acomodate soccer and football for one stadium?
Because that would become a gigantic mess to handle every weekend. Just ask them at Giants Stadium. When you put sod over top of an artificial surface temporarily, it gets ripped and pulled up very easily since it's not rooted--and it leaves a mess behind when you take the sod off the field. It's not at all like laying hardwood over top of an insulated ice surface--ice isn't messy as long as you keep it frozen under a protective layer of insulation. Laying down grass and then pulling it up becomes a big mess and chore. That's not even considering how expensive it is to execute that operation over a large field every single week.
A note on the pictures. The stadium picture is old. I note the lighter color around the edges where the old Astroturf was left around the sides for the mixed grass/plastic the football plays slipped on or the one year of grass the Blitzz played on the first year that didn't root and rotted under the ice during the Olympics. The Fieldturf is wall to wall. There is new board on the South end now. The game picture in of the USWNT vrs Ireland. The Blitzz advertising has been removed from the wall and the leg busting national ad signs are sitting on the ground narrowing the already narrow field even more especially the bail out area before a player crashes in to the wall. Note the head high projection and the 2 feet of cleat unfriendly concrete in front of the wall. The greening out of the lines was done for the Blitzz and lasted until pointy ball season when a 24 hour a day monster effort was required to return the gridiron. The University said never again! Fieldturf said 'no unapproved paints even if they are water washable and envionmentally friendly we have not approved them and if you want to keep your warranty you won't use them'. The U also will not get FIFA "certification for artificial playing surfaces".
Not that this is any more feasible but I remember watching a documentary on a stadium in Japan that was created for the WC. It was a dome stadium whose side was retractable. Somehow the field could actually float about 6 inches off the ground. They would keep the field outside between games. Then they would retract the side of the stadium and float the field in. Sounds unbelievable but it was one of the coolest things I'd ever seen. Truly an engineering marvel. I'd imagine that would work instead of sod though I can't even begin to imagine what the price tag on that baby would look like.
I saw Mexico - Guatemala from the Alamo Dome (delayed) last night on GolTV. Of course, Guatemala & Mexico don't play much "Route 1" like the Blitzz would. Both teams like to keep the ball on the ground. But it seemed like the ball didn't "run" & take "25 cent vending machine Superball" hops. Maybe I was seeing things that weren't there (Wouldn't be the first time, but I stayed away from the Polygamy Porter last night). But is there any way that we could make the Rice Eccles Fieldturf a little more like the Alamo Dome fieldturf? I don't suppose that there's anything the Rice Eccles staff could do. Super, there was a thread a few months ago about this. A guy from the Rice Eccles Stadium staff, Kenn and a Metrostars fan (I think it was a Metrofan) had some figures on how much those trays of real grass would cost. If you have to ask, you can't afford it. But on the other hand, somebody (maybe the city, probably the Blitzz) paid for some sod to cover part of the infield during the 2001 USL D3 final.
I saw that game as well, and overall I was very impressed with the field turf (I'm pretty sure it was the first game I've seen, at least on TV, with field turf) But one thing I noticed was that the ball seems to stick instead of slide. When someone makes a pass, it rolls and bounces just a little bit instead of gliding the way it does on very nice grass fields. I notced a few times where this sort of bothered the players first touch. I also noticed that the players seemed far less likely to slide. I've been told that sliding on field turf isn't any worse than on grass, but they really seemed to avoid it. Are there any other MLS tems that currently play on field turf? I remember that Chicago did in Naperville. Anyone else? Is this going to give ReAl a decent advantage at home or do teams already know how to play on it?
But you don't rip it up every week though. You'd put the grass down about 1-2 weeks before the first home game and have it grow. When the football team needs their astroturf, then you rip it up. For MLS games that overlap, then you have RSL play on astroturf. That's how they did it at Giants, IIRC. Grass down in late March, to be pulled up as soon as the Giants and Jets started practicing in there.
U of U football practices at rice-eccles in april and also in august, and would never go for it. football rules the u.s.a. and u of u.