Grass Appreciation Thread

[ensco]

Mayor Miller - incredible use of the mayor's bully pulpit for a cause that only a minority of citizens really care about - wow!

MLSE - spent considerable capital (political and financial) to make this happen. Proved me, and lots of others, wrong.

Dwayne DeRosario - spoke out early and often against the turf. Massively helped shape public opinion from an early date on this.

Mo - went out on a limb after the Edu transfer to ask that the Edu funds be used for grass. It was a risky thing to do at the time.

Paul Stalteri - the first Canadian to speak out against the turf

David Beckham - the first MLS player to speak out against the turf (and he's no ordinary voice)

ExiledRed - the first Red Patch Boy to make grass a real cause on this board, and it was very much against the run of public opinion at the time. He was often called an ingrate at the time, but he was first.

Domin8r - no explanation needed.

Paul Beirne - took massive abuse from every direction for the Real Madrid game, but no single event demonstrated the necessity of grass, and the opportunity that grass creates, more than this did.



(Feel free to add to list.)

[Damien]

http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa299/yupko/do-not-want1-ow1-grass-1-cat-0-1.jpg

[craigtfc]

Dont forget THE FANS!!!

[dantdot]

As a token of our appreciation may you accept this fine sticky-icky.

[TFC Cityboy]

We shouldn't underestimate the power of Supporrters Groups.
Thru focused and constructive criticism and pressure, in my opinion, we have helped get key players in to TFC (De Ro and JDG), greater co-operation from MLS around FIFA weekends, and now grass. Likely other stuff too that slips my mind right now.

Huge credit should go to those who have petitioned and worked with the club especially on the grass issue.

Thanks!

[Marco2K]

How green it is.

[ensco]

^“One of these days, Alice. Pow! Right in the kisser!”

[greatwhitenorf]

Rudi from USector.

Got into several Year 1 debates with him and dear old Bring Back The Blizzard - and other plastic advocates - about the surface and shifting the dome to Lamport to let grass be used.

Then Rudi ran out an analytical piece called 'I Got 99 Problems, But A Pitch Ain't One', telling us plastic was OK.

Mushrooms, Baby, Mushrooms!

[AL-MO]

I don't blame Rudi/U-Sector. Look how long they supported the Lynx out of Centennial park? I think they wanted a real stadium here in T.O no matter the circumstances.

[Oldtimer]

More to appreciate:

Mo Edu for getting picked up by Rangers for a big fat transfer fee, that helped pay for the grass.

The MLSE Board. Often falsely thought of as cheap, they voted for a significant outlay of MLSE funds in addition to the Mo Edu funds.

All th RPB who supported real grass one way or another.

Tom Anselmi, who spoke to the press about this issue.

Paul B., who understands what real football is about, the need for authenticity, and how the plastic stuff just doesn't cut it.

Toronto city councillers who gave grass a unanimous vote.

The SSH who will be paying through the nose to fund the MLSE portion. :D

[Carts]

Remember to thank God - he invented and created this Grass we speak off... :)

Carts...

[Shaughno]

http://www.hobokenspc.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/adult-t-shirt.jpeg

[Mojo]

If theres grass on the field, play ball.

[Belfast_Boy]

well done to all! from the politicians, players, Domin8r to everyone that emailed and made themselves heard!

hmmm makes me think we could get something else! 4 day work week or flying cars?

[Northern Soul]

I appreciate.

[Redcoe15]

:stogey:

We Getting Grass! YAAAAAAY!

:party::party:

:pbjtime::pbjtime::pbjtime::pbjtime::pbjtime:

:D

[CoachGT]

I fought the lawn and the lawn won!

[gif]

grass is good, cant wait

:pbjtime::party::pbjtime:

[Redcoe15]

I fought the lawn and the lawn won!
:smilielol5::smilielol5::smilielol5::smilielol5:

[Globetrotter]

Paul Stalteri - the first Canadian to speak out against the turf

David Beckham - the first MLS player to speak out against the turf (and he's no ordinary voice)

(Feel free to add to list.)

Errm, not going to debate this, those two did speak out about it, but "the first" doesn't fit the bill.

yay grass.

[Darlofletch]

http://www.redpatchboys.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=12314

Was trying to find a specific article and google actually brought me to a previous rpb thread about it.

Anyway, yay grass, let's hope we do it right.

[Flipityflu]

i would like to thank God for inventing grass 7,000 years ago.

great job by all those involved.

[BFin]

Remember to thank God - he invented and created this Grass we speak off... :)

Carts...
'God' invented grass now too??

[greatwhitenorf]

How 'bout we just acknowledge the Compleat And Total Domination of soccer in this city each and every summer? I mean, it justs SKWASHES! every other sport out there. Is there anything more withered and shrivelled than gridiron football. Baseball is not far behind. Soccer OWNS this city come summer time.

Our kids will just pummel every grass surface available into submission each and every spring-summer-fall from now to the foreseeable future with their undying, one-love appreciation for this awesome game.

Fact, baby.

Deal with it, Bobo McClown, 240 Gordy Stellickova, BaldBoy Landry, Yikes! Hogan, JAKK'D! AHHrms-Chrawng and all the other Ostrichboys at The FruitFlan 590 Sports Radio. Soccer is about to run this show and you lot are No Longer Relevant.

[billyfly]

SO. What is next here. Anyone know if the Provincial and Federal ok is in progress this week?

[Rudi]

Rudi from USector.

Got into several Year 1 debates with him and dear old Bring Back The Blizzard - and other plastic advocates - about the surface and shifting the dome to Lamport to let grass be used.

Then Rudi ran out an analytical piece called 'I Got 99 Problems, But A Pitch Ain't One', telling us plastic was OK.

Mushrooms, Baby, Mushrooms!
I'm just noticing this.

Back then I was an advocate of getting anything in to allow high-level soccer to take place in our city. The turf, if used properly (and not abused the way has since then), would actually accomplish that. Look at the stuff in Seattle and New England, neither are overused and both are very good surfaces (New England had a terrible grass pitch torn up weekly by the NFL team).

Never once did I say FieldTurf was better than grass, in fact I always maintained the opposite. But given the amount of bitching going on before a ball was even kicked, I wrote that piece to dispel some things (and you have to give me credit for that awesome title :D).

No one, and I repeat NO ONE, predicted that the surface would be so overused that by the end of year one it wold be nothing more than glorified AstroTurf.

I'm not sure why you even brought my name up in here though, or how you even remembered my awesomely-titled blog entry on the subject from nearly three years ago. I've been pretty staunch from the get go that if it were possible to get grass in the stadium, then that should be the proper course of action, if only because the players had a huge negative preconception against any artificial surface.

I just didn't see how that would be possible in the short term, given the community usage angle. I'm glad to have been proven wrong on that point.

[ensco]

^This is the way I remember it. Those wanting grass in the beginning were more often accused of ingratitude, not of being wrong about fieldturf.

There was a group of people pounding the table on how fieldturf was the way of the future, but this was not the position of the more thoughtful posters.

[rocker]

My position on fieldturf was always that GOOD turf is not that bad.
And Seattle has proven that thoroughly this season.
I also still do not believe (and the studies prove this) that more injuries are caused on fieldturf compared to grass. And given Winsper's work after Season 1, clearly we're not getting more injuries than teams with grass fields.

But our fieldturf has turned into the worst kind due to overuse. So grass is a vast improvement.
And if players *perceive* fieldturf as a very bad thing, perception is reality in terms of signing players or making player happy.

[Shakes McQueen]

My position on fieldturf was always that GOOD turf is not that bad.
And Seattle has proven that thoroughly this season.
I also still do not believe (and the studies prove this) that more injuries are caused on fieldturf compared to grass. And given Winsper's work after Season 1, clearly we're not getting more injuries than teams with grass fields.

But our fieldturf has turned into the worst kind due to overuse. So grass is a vast improvement.
And if players *perceive* fieldturf as a very bad thing, perception is reality in terms of signing players or making player happy.

I think the whole fieldturf = more injuries thing is overblown. What isn't overblown, is how much nicer the ball moves on grass - no more goofy bounces.

But in terms of injuries, I think you're bang on that it's more perception than reality.

- Scott

[billyfly]

SO. What is next here. Anyone know if the Provincial and Federal ok is in progress this week?

No one has answered my question.

[DOMIN8R]

^^^I don't think that the province or the feds have given their approval yet.

[billyfly]

Any idea of the sch of the approval process for those 2 levels of government?

I remember the deadline as being Nov 15th (?) to start the work for next season to have grass.

[DOMIN8R]

I have not been told that a formal schedule is in place. I believe it's a mad scramble to get the amendment signed off as soon as possible so that they can take definitive steps to tear out and replace the turf.

[billyfly]

You'll see this tomorrow in the news thread no doubt.

http://www.tsn.ca/soccer/story/?id=294851