No Synthetic Grass..

[mtbykr]

I honestly believe the crappy field is intentional which would mean artificial turf is not even being discussed. I'm sure if it happens again, the NFL will step in, and all of a sudden the field will be in great condition for the next home game
Plus I'd be pretty upset if it was raining, and there was no mud. Where's the fun in that?

And to comment on a previous post, I don't remember ever seeing a hamstring injury caused from slippage. Groin injuries yes, but not hamstrings. Not saying it doesn't ever happen but I would imagine it's pretty rare. The theory I've heard and agree with is the reason why these muscle type injuries are happening more is because players are bulking up too much. I forget who said it but "you can't pull fat".

Well BB would disagree with you. He was on the big show yesterday (WEEI) and was very pissed about the field condition. Ordway said he even went a lot farther about it after they got off the air! Mabey in the past when playing the dolts who need speed, the pats would like this condition (especially with someone like corey running the ball) ...however now with maroney (who depends on quick cuts to be effective) that is not the case.

 

[waspie (UK)]

As someone else has said, this really has nothing to do with the Revolution (and I'm not a UK soccer apologist. We've been discussing this over on UKPatriots.com this week. I agree with the following posts there:

Most of the wear is in the middle of the field - in other words, where snaps take place during Patriots games. If Revs games were having that great an effect there would surely be more wear down the wings or around the goalmouth areas?

A few years back when the Scottish Claymores were still in NFL Europe a similar debate blew wide open here.
The Claymores played at Scotland's National Stadium, Hampden Park. The stadium is primarily a soccer stadium and is indeed the home park of one of the Scottish League members, Queen's Park.
Anyway, the NFL Europe season takes place between April and June whereas the soccer season runs from July to May. There was a particular problem one year when we had a pretty wet Spring and the NFL Europe games were badly cutting and churning up the playing surface at Hampden.
The situation was so bad that the NFL had to pay out to get new turf laid for the Scottish Cup final (Scottish soccer's showpiece event of the season) due to the rigours of the wet weather and the NFL Europe players.
Soccer as a rule tends to wear out sections of the park, mainly around the goal-mouth areas and very rarely can it be blamed for churning up parks as soccer has, if possible, got to be played on a reasonably flat and level surface.

I think the latter post is particularly relevant - Glasgow's climate is not too dissimilar to New England's.

 

[georgefrme]

Given Brady's record on turf and the effort to build team speed, you would think that turf would be a great investment. Or we can just wait for global warming to lengthen the growing season for the current grass/sand.

 

[CTPatsFan]

As someone else has said, this really has nothing to do with the Revolution (and I'm not a UK soccer apologist. We've been discussing this over on UKPatriots.com this week. I agree with the following posts there:





I think the latter post is particularly relevant - Glasgow's climate is not too dissimilar to New England's.

Great points, waspie. Wear and tear by the Revs is far less of a problem than that of the non-sport events. Heck, a Pats practice probably tears things up more than a Revs game. Especially between the hash marks.

 

[zoostation]

I'm almost certain the MLS (NE Revolution) requires all teams must play on grass fields.

 

[captain stone]

I'm just kidding, Tune. The Broncos field actually hurts the eyes when you look at it!

Being that it pays my bills, I'm a huge advocate of natural turf and hate to see conversions to plastic. Field turf is NOT maintenance free nor inexpensive to maintain. They have a 5-7 year life span depending on usage, require regular vacuuming and brushing, constant replacement of the crumb rubber fill (that makes the field 'give' and hold the 'turf' blades upright) and should actually be disinfected fairly often (they hold all kinds of funky bacteria).

Natural turf gets a bad rap when it is poorly maintained, whether intentional or not. We supply the bluegrass seed, soil amendments and foliar fertilizers to the contractor that maintains Rentschler Field where UConn plays "football" (they may suck but their field is awesome). In the roughly three years he's had the contract we've helped him push a stagnant 2" root system (the sod never left the layer it was harvested with and would slide when the players played on it) to over 12"+ and solid. The Rent has no where near the turf growing amenities that the Razor has and is used for concerts, H.S. football tourneys, soccer tourneys, etc. not unike Gillette. It is absolutely possible.

Very, very informative post, CTPF. I had posted in another thread about the possibility of changing to FieldTurf. I should have read this thread first. In your professional opinion, then, what are the pats doing wrong, and what can they do, if anything, to correct this eyesore, now and going forward?

 

[waspie (UK)]

http://www.dessodlw.com/vervolg.asp?fID=03080000&dID=index&sID=index&lID=en
Desso Grassmaster - the turf used by the Eagles, Steelers, Broncos. As stated above, it's turf, bu reinforced with a synthetic carpet. Much better than Field Turf.

 

[Brownfan80]

http://www.dessodlw.com/vervolg.asp?fID=03080000&dID=index&sID=index&lID=en
Desso Grassmaster - the turf used by the Eagles, Steelers, Broncos. As stated above, it's turf, bu reinforced with a synthetic carpet. Much better than Field Turf.

Very interesting option.. Any drawbacks?

 

[lobster]

This was SI's "Dr. Z" comment on the field condition today:

Nick Saban referred to the Patriots' field as "basically a sandbox." The Dolphins maintain that it contributed to one blocked field goal by Olindo Mare and another that fell short. Many people wonder why the league lets the Patriots get away with painting the dirt on their field green, but you know, owner Bob Kraft is a revered figure in NFL circles.

Source:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/dr_z/10/11/ranks.part1/index.html?section=si_nfl