Vancouver still has a "vision" of their own Waterfront Stadium, natural grass, seating around 20k. In fact it's still mentioned on the Whitecaps' own web site. They were pushed to go into BC Place at least for a while, so that the expensive rebuild for the Olympics would seem more worth it overall. No idea if the Waterfront Stadium will ever happen, as a couple of hurdles have to be overcome, but that was the plan.
The Seattle stadium theoretically has a condition on it that the surface would be changed to grass if MLS ever demanded that. But yeah with a few other long-term artificial turf stadiums likely in the league, it will be hard to ever show that grass is necessary.
I guess Atlanta will be using "GreenFields Turf" which I haven't heard of before, is that any better? Here's some fabulous-sounding marketing about the surface, but we shall see. Does anyone remember the supposed wonders of Duraspine?
http://www.atlutd.com/post/2016/02/1...ing-mb-stadium
I was going to say, the temperature on artificial turf in the Atlanta summer will be absolutely unbearable, unless someone comes up with a way to keep the artificial surfaces much cooler than is currently the case. But I guess their new stadium is supposed to have a retractable roof. I wonder if they will close the roof & use a/c if it's very hot for MLS games in the summer?
Portland Timbers stadium is a shame, you can grow great grass of
every type in Portland. Until the Portland State football team finds a new home (likely never) that will stay artificial turf.