We have to switch for the World Cup anyway so might as well figure out a way now. Grass probably won’t grow well under the roof and a retractable field like in Glendale or Las Vegas might be too complicated to retrofit, plus it might get too beat up with two home teams sharing the field. Giants Stadium had an I nterlocking tray system for the World Cup in ‘94, I wonder if something like that is feasible.
Ban Turf!
So earlier this year there was this whole drama about the LA Galaxy acquiring the fields and stadium at the Great Orange park, and it came out that the city of Irvine spent $700,000 a year to maintain the grass in the stadium alone. If the city converted to turf it would bring those costs down to $70,000.
I’m sure the costs to maintain grass for NFL games is in the millions, but it’s ridiculous the most expensive stadium in the world has turf and wasn’t built to hold FIFA soccer matches. I get having turf makes the turnaround time between Rams, Chargers, and concerts faster, but how many times in a year are you going to have a turnaround time of under 48 hours between events?
With the exception of Met Life Stadium every other stadium only plays 10 games a year. SoFi and Met Life 20 games due to their being 2 teams. They both use turf for that reason. The grass does not have enough time to recover. I’m sure there is a way but as stated above it’s likely the expense that is standing in the way. If the tenants would move out it would make switching to real grass much easier.
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We have to switch for the World Cup anyway so might as well figure out a way now. Grass probably won’t grow well under the roof and a retractable field like in Glendale or Las Vegas might be too complicated to retrofit, plus it might get too beat up with two home teams sharing the field. Giants Stadium had an I nterlocking tray system for the World Cup in ‘94, I wonder if something like that is feasible.
Ban Turf!
So earlier this year there was this whole drama about the LA Galaxy acquiring the fields and stadium at the Great Orange park, and it came out that the city of Irvine spent $700,000 a year to maintain the grass in the stadium alone. If the city converted to turf it would bring those costs down to $70,000.
I’m sure the costs to maintain grass for NFL games is in the millions, but it’s ridiculous the most expensive stadium in the world has turf and wasn’t built to hold FIFA soccer matches. I get having turf makes the turnaround time between Rams, Chargers, and concerts faster, but how many times in a year are you going to have a turnaround time of under 48 hours between events?
With the exception of Met Life Stadium every other stadium only plays 10 games a year. SoFi and Met Life 20 games due to their being 2 teams. They both use turf for that reason. The grass does not have enough time to recover. I’m sure there is a way but as stated above it’s likely the expense that is standing in the way. If the tenants would move out it would make switching to real grass much easier.