hmm, let the speculation begin. I'll just go ahead and say that Springfield Lutheran High School has NOT been in contact with the Fire. That should end that rumor.
Surface I play on the same surface in Cincinnati on the weekends and during the summer months its insane. 2 Sunday's ago it was 97 with a heat index of 108 at 1:30 kickoff, I lost 5 pounds of water weight during the game, playing cm, The surface just absorbs the heat and then puts it back out like and oven. Before the game and every chance I get I water down my cleats with cold water to cool my feet down. I will say this though I would rather play on that surface than on a rocky ground though.
I've been playing at Concordia University the last couple mornings and they have that same stuff and it gets hot. It's not so bad at first, then the feet really start to burn. You can't even walk on it without shoes.
Re: Surface See everybody? There are worse playing surfaces! Safe-play is better for soccer than: 1. A rocky ground 2. Gravel 3. Concrete 4. Sand 5. Asphalt 6. Broken glass 7. Three inches of water (see, All-Star game video) 8. Burning embers 9. Stainless steel 10. Jell-o 11. Splintery wood 12. A mirror 13. Corpses or carcasses of any sort 14. A sea of crawling insects, spiders, bugs, and snakes (see Raiders of the Lost Ark) 15. Sandpaper 16. Bearskin rugs 17. Rusty iron bars 18. Prairie grass 19. Poison oak/ivy/sumac 20. A new, state-of-the-art playing surface made from human hair See? We don't have it so bad.
Re: Re: Re: Surface The old Soldier Field. I doubt seriously the new one will be anywhere near as bad during football season. Plus the grass/dirt/paint never hit 150 degrees during the summer...
The advantage is the surface plays like a putting green, giving you a perfect touch every time out. The quality of soccer played in the men's open leauges is excellent typically college and d-3 level ball minus the speed of the game. The best is to play in the morning at 9:00 or late in the evening during the summer.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Surface However, I _know_ there were injuries directly attributable to the poor field conditions at S.F. I remember, distinctly, Ante Razov twisting an ankle in a dirt divot and being out for a couple games. And I bet that the All-Star game would have been a lot nicer looking at the start of the second half on safe-play. That pooling was excessive. I've seen the NCC field drain... granted, it wasn't that huge of a downpour... but it was pretty damned wet... and it barely affected play.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Surface Drainage is similar on all the new grass surfaces like at Foxboro and Mile High.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Surface It was my understanding that the field was part of the gambit in getting the new stadium (much as they did with old Comiskey and Tiger Stadium). If you're trying to bilk the taxpayers for a new stadium because your current one is obsolete, it behooves you to not meet the level of upkeep you normally would do. They're doing this in Fenway Park in Boston too. Shameful behavior, actually.
Re: Re: Re: Scheduling! Sceheduling! Talk about scheduling! Good i always found Blanch as pretty hot in a trashy sort of way!!! Something about an old coot talking dirty like that get's me hotter then the field in Naperville.
Perhaps this has been discussed before but why not try a grass tray system like the Metro were using before GS became grass?
doesn't GS STILL use that tray system? and as an aside, we've seen how well those tray systems hold up. with weather like we've had this summer (hot and dry and hot and dry and then hot), those tray systems would never have made it, there's just not the root base there of course to support any long term life.
Its is still a tray system but part of a permanent field now, no astro-turf underneath like in previous years. And while our grass is not the greatest, surely Naperville does not have the volume of use that GS receives, so a tray system might be ideal. And it hasn't been any hotter in Chicago then NY, so I doubt that the lack of water would be much of an issue, then again, we do have running water here...
As soon as you write a check for the million or two it would cost to have a grass tray system I'm sure Peter Wilt would be happy to put it in.
MetroMedia supposedly footed the bill for our tray system for several years, now that improvements have been made to Naperville, I wonder if AEG would consider the tray system since upgrade costs won't be an issue for next year.......
The tray system would be expensive and not worth the cost since we would now only use it one more year as we will be back in SF in 2004. Also the grass tray system does not correct the more important problem of playing at cardinal stadium namely the width of the field. The early part of the season we can't cover the track.