What's the deal with the pitch at Gillette?

I went to the game Saturday. First one this year for me. I was shocked aty how bad the pitch was. I thought they spent millions of dollars putting an underground heating system so they could get the grass going earlier than ever before and that the would really benefit the REVS.

Very disappointing.

 

The pitch is a disgrace and dangerous too. The starting times are, one hopes, an experiment. Each city, it seems, has its' best times for games. Here, as far as I can see, it is 7:30 on Friday and Saturday nights. I think the Rev management should insist on this. It is better for everyone. I realize that there are ESPN games that need to be at four but I really think that the times are part of what is killing the crowd size. That and, total irony, too many home games early in the year. I know, I know, that's crazy but it may be the cause of BOTH the small crowds and horrid playing surface.

JIM DOW

 

Krafty don't care 'bout us

If he did we would've had nice new turf with the Revs logo on it, I mean were the Eastern Conf. Champs for Christ's sake. Take your hand off Brady's ass and focus on a real team. We should have 20k no matter the times are. Between the owners and the media I'm surprised people actually know there's a team. I'm to depressed now to talk right now, maybe later.

 

If I remember correctly, the turf at Gillette was in pretty horrid shape last fall as well. I find it interesting that 3 NFL stadiums in the northeast have had turf problems -- Foxboro, the Meadowlands and Heinz Field in Pittsburg.

The Meadowlands has already converted to Field Turf. I hope Foxboro doesn't follow suit.

Any theories as to why it's in such awful shape?

 

Because NFL football is extremely hard on grass. Afer an NFL game approx. one third of the grass on a field is destroyed. With MLS starting its season in the spring there's no season for the turf to heal and regrow. A completely new grass surface should be installed before the MLS season but stadium athorities won't go through the expense. What's the answer? SSS or a system like the stdium in Sapporo, Japan where there is another surface that can be removed and put back.

 

You guys aren't the only ones mumbling about the pitch.

TnT after yesterday's match to the assembled media throng: "It's really tough to play on our field. It's really bumpy."

 

It's got to be due to the harsh winter. And remember when everyone was up in arms about the Champions' Cup "home leg" being down in Costa Rica? Well as it turned out, the field was in no kind of shape then.

As for the SSS, I've had a vision about that subject but need a seperate thread to cover it.

 

Try calling it a field, maybe the the Patriots will know what you're talking about. A pitch to them is what they use to get free agents to become part of their team. They don't roll balls in football, so a bumpy field means nothing, as long as it looks good on tv.

 

Re: Krafty don't care 'bout us

As Zippy the Pinhead once said, "Reality is a sandwich I did not order." Have you ever, in all the many, many years you have watched soccer, seen a soccer field with a logo of any kind on it?

There's a reason for it. And don't you think that if it was legal, Vodafone United might have done something with the pitch at Old Trafford to "enhance the Brand"?

Tom

 

Ever see that tall, burly man with the frozen pissed off look on his face walking around the stadium? Yeah, the same guy who wears shorts and Timberland boots 12 months out of the year despite the temperature? That guy - the same guy who was out there with a leafblower trying to clear snow in the midst of a raging snowstorm when the Patriots had the ball in overtime and went on to beat the Raiders in the playoffs in late-January 2002. He's one of the groundskeepers - and, it's apparent by the look on his face he's ready to have coronary, too [He almost neutered Rob Stone recently - without the aid of surgical tools - when he walked on the newly planted seedlings at the practice pitch at Wrentham State]. FWIW, he craps bigger than Stone.

This is a tired old song, nonetheless. You can substitute the words "harsh winter" with "Patriots football" - pulling out all the stops in an attempt to make the playoffs, and hopefully defend your world championship in the process will do that.

As long as the two teams share the same surface and the entity allows concerts on it to boot, you'll always experience the same problems [dead or no grass inside the hashmarks, green spray painted infield, dead spots due to long shadows created by the stadium edifice itself, etc] despite the state-of-the-art built-in systems [underground heating, watering and filtration].

And, it don't make the big man's life, or anyone else on the groundskeeping staff's, any easier either.

 

I wonder if the state of the turf had anything to do with Joe-Max's injury. Paper said he rolled his ankle in a divot. I wonder if it was on one of the clumps of grass.

Also, I found it interesting that more than one Patriots season ticket holder has complained about "the soccer games damaging the field".

 

If Brady rolls his ankle due to the field conditions, new turf would be rolled out faster than you can say Joe-Max Moore. Don't kid yourself if you think Kraft cares about the field in May, June, or July.

And those 65,000+ fans and 40,000+ waiting list fans of the Patriots carry a little more weight than the few of us Revs supporters. If only 10,000 keep coming to the Razor, the pitch may be the least of our concerns.

 

The answer is simple: we need our own soccer-specific stadium in the city.

 

1. I didn't say vodaphone I said Revs.

2. It's only illegal until somebody makes it legal. If Bush can go half way around the world, blow up a third world country under the guise of finding WMD, and by not finding any now or 20 years from now not be hung by the nearest tree than I think the Revs should be able to have something on the field.

Rant over.

 

This post will really help move the thread in the right direction. Can the mods please move this post to bigpolitics.com?

 

You want to fight Blatter? No contest

Ah, but you underestimate the power structure in the world. Some tin-pot dictator doesn't have anywhere near the power that FIFA has.

FIFA says it is illegal to have any kind of markings other than the usual lines on the soccer field, then so be it.

You also obviously missed the previous point. With all the commercial interests in Europe, if field markings were legal, don't you think some big club somewhere would have their badge on the pitch? Or their sponsor's name? Ther have been experiments with "virtual" ads on the field for TV broadcasts in Europe, but nothing ever on the field itself.

Tom

 

From transrapide:
I still think the pitch shape is disgraceful. Fenway's field doesn't look that crappy and they had the same time and weather to deal with. Enough of the excuses, just resod the field and spend a bit.

**************************

While I agree that the pitch shape is disgraceful, to compare it to Fenway is inappropriate. The amount of wear and tear that a baseball field goes through versus football or soccer is night and day. Don't go there.

We do need to get the pitch into good shape, and that shouldn't be too hard to do. Not that it is cheap, it just shouldn't be too hard. Why aren't they putting in the pitch they want now for the football season? We play there what, once every two weeks? You can't resod/repair it after a home game and have it in good shape two weeks later??

There is absolutely no excuse for why between June 8th and June 27th that field doesn't get fixed. I hope it is fixed before then.

 

Pitch for UEAF Cup

The pitch at the Stadia Opimpica for the UEFA Cup final today was even worse than the Razor. Just goes to show you that MLS isn't the only place where the pitch isn't always up to par.

BTW, after halftime a guy came out to the center circle and showed a Red Card to the Ref and then dropped his pants and mooned the World. The camera stayed on him while they walked his naked body slowly off the pitch. Amazing that they continued to show him on camera after they figured out what he was up too.

George