Turf issues at Gillette

[Patsfanin Philly]

An Eagles-Ravens preseason game was cancelled a few years ago (2001) when the field was found to be non suitable for playing.
https://www.espn.com/nfl/news/2001/0814/1239539.html

 

[UGAPatsfan]

This is such a mundane example of “the person in charge of ensuring EVERY variable was identical for testing as it would be installed didn’t “. Basic everyday business **** up by a human who’s job it was to catch it.

Happens all the time, as a CEO it pisses me off, but you chalk it up to error.

In this case, it’s the NFL so that’s an expensive **** up because they have to do it AGAIN.

 

[patchick]

In case anybody forgets, Gillette WAS built with a then state-of-the-art grass field, at great expense. It was swapped out for FieldTurf on an emergency basis (again at great expense) after a 2006 game that turned into a horrific and hazardous mud pit.

Here's a good article about it from 2016: Why the New England Patriots gave up on natural grass. Some notable quotes:

“If you have a competitive team, you want to give them a chance to play,” Belichick said this week, recalling the decision to change to FieldTurf. “You don’t want to go out there and slop around every week and play in a mud bowl. … Those are hard conditions for players to play on because it’s not consistent within the play, or it’s frozen on part of the field and it’s not frozen on the other part of the field.

“The amount of sunlight the field gets after August isn’t enough, because the stadium is tall,” Kraft said at the time. “So the grass doesn’t have a chance to recover after being used aggressively in April straight through January. No matter how good the system is underneath it, no one perfected a way to replace Mother Nature unless you go to an artificial surface.”

I don't know where this idea that Kraft is guarding his pile of riches like Smaug comes from. Or maybe I do.

 

[Sect140]

I don't know if there was a delay or not, but it seems to me that the new turf and crews should have been on hand and ready to begin installation the day after the last Foxboro World Cup game. If the stadium administrators did not plan ahead to begin replacement immediately, the current situation is inexcusable.

They put the turf down right after the World Cup, then testing determined that turf didn’t meet NFL standards and they need to replace the one they put in after the World Cup.

 

[TommyD4207]

There are very real problems maintaining real grass playing fields in winter climate conditions. The only good solution is putting a dome over the grass. That eliminates many true home field advantages.

You roll it out, put it under a dome, and roll it back in. There are natural grass domes now.

Nah. Again, the Patriots are valued at 9 billion dollars. This isn't the same thing as you trying to keep your lawn going in October.

 

[DarrylS]

Read where the players lobbied to keep the grass, but that was nixed by Mr. Kraft. Other players from other teams joined in as well.
So now we have a conundrum cause the artificial grass sucks.
Is this one of those Karma things?

Patriots have rare chance to start NFL trend that players have begged for

Patriots owner Robert Kraft has a big opportunity to make a significant change to Gillette Stadium that players have been asking for.

musketfire.com

 

[PATSNUTme]

In case anybody forgets, Gillette WAS built with a then state-of-the-art grass field, at great expense. It was swapped out for FieldTurf on an emergency basis (again at great expense) after a 2006 game that turned into a horrific and hazardous mud pit.

Here's a good article about it from 2016: Why the New England Patriots gave up on natural grass. Some notable quotes:




I don't know where this idea that Kraft is guarding his pile of riches like Smaug comes from. Or maybe I do.

You are correct. The natural grass that they had was great- until December.
It had to do with the amount of light from one EZ along with the up and down temperatures. The Jets playoff game was the final straw, it was a mess.
It was decided that natural grass could not work in that stadium. That's when the went with field turf.
There have been changes to the stadium since then but I'd hate to see the same problems start in December.