Should MLS begin to transition to all grass surfaces?

Yes.

Yes we are.

But we're nice about it, at least.

 

I'm trying to decide which of us has the sillier hat.

 

This company is the provider of the Feyenoord pitch in the stadium, which is 100% grass (the same is true for all top clubs in the league):
Feyenoord krijgt weer een fraaie Limburgse grasmat | 1Limburg ...
https://www.1limburg.nl/feyenoord-krijgt-weer-een-fraaie-limburgse-grasmat
9 jul. 2018 - Het veld van De Kuip in Rotterdam ligt er binnenkort dankzij de grasmatten van Hendriks Graszoden uit Heythuysen als een biljartlaken bij.

The link you provided is very outdated and was about the old training compound.
The new training facility "1908", just a few weeks ago opened has a 100% gras pitch and one hybrid pitch:
https://www.ad.nl/rotterdam/toekoms...-ligt-er-nu-al-als-biljartlaken-bij~adff5657/

There are a few lower table clubs with art turf (about 6 iirc), but the intention is to move away completely from art turf in the stadiums completely. Hybrid ones do make sense in training facilities, as these are used more intense.

So yes I'm sure.

 

These are the pro clubs playing on art turf:
https://sport.infonu.nl/voetbal/145476-welke-clubs-spelen-op-kunstgras.html
Welke Nederlandse clubs spelen op kunstgras?
In de Nederlandse Eredivisie en Jupiler League hebben een aantal clubs gekozen voor kunstgras. In de Eredivisie zijn dit in 2018:

• Heracles Almelo
• PEC Zwolle
• Excelsior
• ADO Den Haag
• Roda JC
• Sparta Rotterdam
• VVV Venlo

De clubs uit de Jupiler League die op kunstgras spelen zijn:

• FC Eindhoven
• FC Volendam
• FC Emmen
• FC Oss
• Almere City FC
• FC Den Bosch
• Helmond Sport
• RKC Waalwijk
• SC Cambuur Leeuwarden
• FC Dordrecht
• Jong PSV (spelen incidenteel in het Philips stadion, waar echt gras ligt)

Jong PSV has it in the PSV training facilities "de Herdgang", where they play a number of their matches.

From 2020 on all clubs should be playing on full grass pitches.

 

These are the pictures from the art. turf company:



This is how looks now:

 

Minny/St Paul is wonderful in the summer & early fall. Spectacular.

 

Yes, we should try to reduce the number of plastic pitches to zero. ASAP. But there are issues with each of the five, as has been pointed out.

No new turf teams. Turf should be a non-starter. Plus, transparent roofing is coming (hello Phoenix).

 

Because of correlated health risks with synthetic turf, not out of principal that grass is a preferred surface.

But I don't think there's enough proof for American sports teams to switch. If there was NFL and the manufacturers would be facing a huge class-action lawsuit.

 

No, the health issue has been "proven" to be non existent and was only an issue in youth amateur soccer. It's a pure soccer related decision in the professional side of football, because one idea is that artificial turf is an obstacle for quality football and players technical development.

I never got that health scare mongering at all. When one realizes our cities are surrounded and cut through with densily used highways with each day hundreds of thousands of cars speeding over them. All those cars emit by friction of their tires enormous amounts of particles the artificial turfs are being blamed of with causing cancer. Wtf?

 

Does that meaning training surfaces are also being converted to grass?

 

Most teams have a full grass one plus a hybrid one=mixed grass with art. turf.

Edit: also the artificial turf is blamed for injuries suffered by players from teams with grass pitches.

 

If getting cancer at a young age is more prevalent among soccer players, doesn't that suggest that something other than highways that everybody uses could cause cancer? Even if particles from highways cause cancer, it doesn't mean that turf fields don't cause cancer also.

 

The artificial turf part that's blamed for that unproven cancer causing are exactly rubber granulates made of shredded tires. So if that's the case, which isnot, the emitting of particles by pitches is laughable small compared to the expulsion of the same ingredients by cars on the roads.
It was impossible to prove a link between cancers and the piches, simply because we already would be alarmed by cancers with non soccer playing people because of the cars tire wear.

 

True and when you build a $1.6 billion spaceship, you're gonna schedule more teams and events than a grass field could possibly handle. Less than 2 weeks ago, ATL hosted a HS football tourney with 9 games in 3 days, then played an MLS game the very next day. Imagine what the condition of a grass field would have been for that MLS game. With the huge pricetag on MBS, they will host NFL, MLS, NCAA football, NCAA basketball tourneys, international soccer, concerts, and more. So, turf is a necessity.

I also think a SSS would be a game-changer for the Revs. Problem is, what motivation do the Krafts have to build one when the current set-up allows them to get an extra 17 home dates out of Gillette?

Agreed but for reasons that go way beyond just having a grass pitch. It's what's needed to realize that franchise's true potential.

Sounds about right and, other than Detroit, I think all expansion bidders have been proposing grass anyway.

 

Feyenoord did for that reason had the wild idea to make in one of the designs for the new stadium a pitch that could float, so it could be pulled out of the stadium, when things like pop concerts, monster trucks etc. are being scheduled. It didnot make it to the last contender designs.
I'm sure however I saw an American stadium, that had a roll out/roll in pitch for iirc American football. So no excuse for keeping art turf.

 

Arizona Cardinal's Stadium in Glendale, AZ has this feature. Then again it's in the middle of nowhere, with loads of space to accommodate moving the field outside. Also, Tottenham's new stadium will have natural grass, along with a removable turf field for NFL games.

 

I’m just going to put this here:

https://theathletic.com/499351/2018...bout-playing-surfaces-stoke-the-mls-turf-war/

Important tidbits for this discussion:

The “he” in the above is quote is Jerad Minnick, a former MLS field manager (Sporting KC) and now an “expert” on grass fields.

Also, particularly meaningful to the cancer discussion:

DiCicco is the son of the former USWNT coach and used to work at a turf company.

 

No subscription, does the article address the amount of use the grass fields in Portland, Seattle, and New England would get with college/pro football also being played on them?

 

It also adds Vancouver and Atlanta. I’m also not sure how applicable Portland is anymore. Portland State only plays one game a season at Providence. The rest of its game are played at a high school multi-sport stadium in nearby Hillsboro.

 

I wasn't aware of the change in Portland. Interesting.

 

I should also note that even though the article was going to be about turf it ended up being more about the problems MLS has with all types of surfaces.

 

But under the terms of the lease the stadium has to be available to PSU football and soccer.

 

And yet, PSU is playing 4 of their 5 games at a HS stadium. If it’s part of their lease, they are failing.

 

As others have noted, artificial turf is mostly a non-issue in MLS in that all the new SSS have grass, and nearly all the artificial turf fields are shared with American football, in which it is very difficult to maintain a soccer quality pitch. Portland is the sad case, in that it's a historic stadium. It's as if Fenway Park had artificial turf. The reasons why it must have artificial turf aren't convincing, at least in the abbreviated forms posted on line. A creek runs underneath the field - I assume this creek is running through a concrete pipe. What's the environmental impact? Artificial turf made sense when the field was shared with a college football team, but we're now learning that the team only plays one game a year there. Cost? It's a consideration but top flight artificual turf fiels aren't cheap either, and need to be replaced periodically.

 

Today's soccer players are whiners. Derby County were English champions twice on this pitch. Even the penalty spot disappeared.