I'm keeping this out of the "construction" thread, as it should be...
I just watched the highlights of the NFL Bengals @ Cardinals game. Arizona plays at the University of Phoenix Stadium, which apparently uses only real grass (not Desso)?
Anyway, the field looked like shit by the end of the game, pretty torn up. Note that they've had great weather & no rain recently.
More than the lines, the missing North End, or anything else, the quality of the playing surface is what concerns me most for next year, as BMO Field also will have pure grass.
Here are highlights of the game
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7Cl-8rG2nc
I think the grass lasts one season before they say it simply can't work and go back to turf. They'll point to Vancouver Montreal new England Seattle etc and claim it's perfectly acceptable for MLS, make some excuses about climate and lack of sunlight because of roof, or they'll just repeat the famous MLSE words "just deal with it".
More than the lines, the surface is now the number one issue about this arranged marriage.
Anybody who thinks the soccer people at TFC would be OK with turf are making assumptions based on life with Mo et al.
Apparently the "soccer people at TFC" were also not OK with the Argos coming to BMO Field. I'm afraid they may not have much to say anymore. In previous year upper management actively worked to keep the Argos out. Now two of our three owners bought them & brought them in.
Think it's more an issue of the players, physically can't last on turf and don't want to come and play on it either. Refuse to believe Sebba would play a full season on turf
Well, I have no reason to doubt the doubters on here. We have all earned the right to be skeptical about this, and I do think this first year is going to be the hardest.
I can say that part of this years expansion with the roof includes the price of importing and running the UV grass growing machine (yes the overhang of the roof will prohibit the growing of grass in natural sunlight). As well, it seems Bill Manning is very focused on keeping that field in a 'natural' state- grass. I had a drink with him last week and that was loud and clear.
Road Trips: July 7 2007 Chicago, July 22nd 2007 Columbus, August 11 2007 NY, October 13 2007 LA, March 29 2008 Columbus, May 24th 2008 DC, May 26 2008 Montreal, June 28th 2008 NE, March 7-11-14 2009 Charleston, March 28 2009 Columbus, April 10 2010 New England, May 12 2010 Montreal, April 7 2012 Montreal, March 16 2013 Montreal , June 3 2014 Montreal, March 14 2015 Columbus
Twitter: @RPBPhil
I worry little about relying on UV grass growing lights. If they can keep grass growing in Green Bay Wisconsin through December and January, we have less worries here in October and December. It is late season rains and schedule jams that I fear the most in this dreaded ground share from Hell.
I know we are swimming in speculation and I respect President Phil feeling the worst year will be the first.
My pessimistic take is that the worst year will be further into the future - it will be the year AFTER the Argos relocate or go under. I do fear that it is a franchise that will never regain a following, never make a profit, never combat the overwhelming Toronto preference for NFL and the Toronto bias against Canadian football (been to a York or U of T game lately?). We will be wondering why the soccer considerations were at all compromised for so little gain on the CFL side...
This is spot on, except they will never let the Argos go under. They need the Argos for the integrity of the CFL so the team will continually be propped up by Bell and TSN. If people don't show up for the Argos, then they will give away the tickets to get people in seats.
If the Argos put a decent product on the field, they should average about 20,000 fans per game. It will be a far cry from the old days, but good enough to survive. I just hope that it's not at our expense.
Thanks for the update Phil! The UV grow lights will definitely help, as they can let the grass grow stronger & deeper. That was necessary even w/o a roof, as we saw a few times in the past when the weather was particularly bad. The roof makes it even more important. Anything that makes the grass stronger from the start, and lets it regrow quicker after damage, will help a bit against the Argos as well.
The other thing that would help is to have the very strongest grass type available from the start. I wonder if they are replacing the grass before the 2016 season?
Did Manning happen to mention anything about getting at least a time-limited exemption to use pesticides/herbicides, like golf courses & many other facilities are allowed to do under specific conditions in Ontario? That would allow them to use a proper winter tarp, which helps against the extreme winter we had in the last two years. It took a couple of months into the season the last two years before the BMO pitch was half decent.
No mention of the pesticides, but to his credit the guy is walking into a nightmare on this one. He is staying positive, I think most of the nitty gritty was decided by Bob Hunter during the summer when it all pushed through.
Road Trips: July 7 2007 Chicago, July 22nd 2007 Columbus, August 11 2007 NY, October 13 2007 LA, March 29 2008 Columbus, May 24th 2008 DC, May 26 2008 Montreal, June 28th 2008 NE, March 7-11-14 2009 Charleston, March 28 2009 Columbus, April 10 2010 New England, May 12 2010 Montreal, April 7 2012 Montreal, March 16 2013 Montreal , June 3 2014 Montreal, March 14 2015 Columbus
Twitter: @RPBPhil
Sunday's Chiefs vs. Bills game was played in a constant downpour. The field held up surprisingly well so much so that the commentators praised the grounds crew for their efforts.
ML$E please hire the Chiefs grounds crew!
So the Jays might not install grass after all? Bunch of BS.
So the Argos can go home & leave us alone? (I know, wishful thinking...)
http://www.thestar.com/sports/blueja...s-griffin.html
Rogers only looks bad if you are an Alex Anthopolous apologist/David Price should have been kept at all costs person. Amazing how much the media has made out of that mess.
Did a quick and dirty calendar with regular season TFC games in red and possible Argo dates in blue.
There'll be some additional TFC games with friendlies and Canadian Championship games - last season there was a friendly and a CC game in May, a friendly in July and the CC final was in August.
And playoffs obviously
actually - scratch that Argo date on Sept 16/17th - can't happen
Last edited by GabrielHurl; 01-07-2016 at 06:10 PM.
^Thanks for the dirty, Gabe. I'm sure it'll get messier but at first glance it looks better than expected.
FORMER FULL TIME KOOL-AID DRINKER
god I wish I had a construction photo handy of BMO to post here
June 21/22 Vcup Final first leg
June 24/25 First Argos Home Game?
June 28/29 Vcup Final last leg.
Sure we have to go through Montreal to get these dates but I believe performance against them will decide the order in home and away legs. The better we do the more likely we'll be seeing the earliest possible test for the surface.
(Not that it could be worse than the worst Vancouver game at BMO. Just saying this will intro the new era in groundshare.)
FORMER FULL TIME KOOL-AID DRINKER
V Cup Final were August 12th and 26th last year
or have the dates changed foe this year?