Do you understand what the turf in NY, MTL, NE, PHI, etc. would look like if you tried to play through the winter?
Columbus Postmatch
- Thread starter NYCFC_Dan
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Do you understand what the turf in NY, MTL, NE, PHI, etc. would look like if you tried to play through the winter?
Heated soil. It can be done.
If green leafy plants can be grown in basements without sunlight, teams can grow grass in the winter if they really wanted to.
http://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2016/...ia-and-seattle-perform-week-mls?autoplay=true
From calling our game on Saturday, Heath is now filling in for Calen.
From calling our game on Saturday, Heath is now filling in for Calen.
Major League Soccer is not the NFL. Also, they don't play through the harshest part of winter. January and February are when it gets brutal outside in this area -- when games are over in December, it becomes passable. Personally, I enjoy going to outdoor sports in the summer, when I want to be outdoors. I really don't think soccer in the winter would work here. I think it's a much better summer sport for this market.
I again would like to call out the fact that referees hardly ever give a red card to someone during a match for swearing at them. And we've all seen refs get sworn at for calls during a match.
What PV and Chanot did must have been egregious to earn a red card post-match in order for this to be deserved (and I honestly doubt this).
There's no reason that swearing post-match should be treated any differently than during a match.
It's not a World Cup knockout match, but part of me thinks one of the players should have prevented by the ball from going into the goal by any means necessary, even drawing a red card, so hopefully we could have won the game if Saunders (with the help of all the Soccer Gods) could save a PK.
Am I crazy to think that?
Am I crazy to think that?
It's not about the temperature and growing, it's about maintaining. NFL fields start looking pretty ragged in December when there's barely any snow.
I think that's more a byproduct of 300lb linemen grinding their cleats into frozen turf looking for leverage and therefore dislodging the grass' root structure. Yes, soccer players may scuff the grass with errant kicks or produce some divots with rough tackles, but that's spread randomly across the entire pitch rather than repetitively between football hash marks. The nature of play during a soccer match, coupled with heated soil and other botanical methods, should be able to maintain a field during the winter. The big money item is getting each team to install hot water radiant heat tubes under the soil.
I feel like getting casual fans to go see a night game on a January evening in Montreal or even NYC would be nearly impossible
Certainly, if one of our guys could have put a hand on the shot, he should have and would have done so. Don't think it was an option, however.
For poutine, I'd reconsider.
But simply from a selfish fan perspective, I can barely make it through those early season games. It's cold af and, unless you're in the supporters' section, you're sitting there turning into an icicle for 45 minutes at a time. When it's hot in the summer, at least you can go get a cold beer, take it back to the concourse if it's too sunny, etc. (I also think a lot of this comes down to lack of scheduling control -- our early/late season games have more evening kickoffs, and our dog days of summer games all have mostly mid-afternoon kickoffs. It's idiotic and should be the other way around.)
During the 2010 WC I used to complain that no man should be allowed to be (A) so good at soccer, (B) so good looking and (C) so Spanish. It just isn't fair to the rest of us mortal men.
(Side note: I said the same about his teammate, Navas.)
You can't grow grass in the winter. There is not enough sunlight even if the turf is heated and you can't just keep laying sod down because it will not hold up well at all.
There is a reason the northern European leagues either play MLS-like schedules (Scandinavia) or extra-long winter breaks (the Russian league plays until December 1 and then starts up again in March).
And that doesn't even to begin to account for the fact that if they played in December through February there would be zero walk-up ticket sales.
Actually you can grow grass during the winter - there are species of grass called Cool Season Grasses. Kentucky Blue Grass is one of them.
http://yardcare.toro.com/create/choosing-the-right-grass/cool-season-grasses/
And if there's a heated subsurface, then that much better for the grass because it uses the heat to metabolize the sunlight and nutrients it gets.
Just be like Bayern and make a mini sun-type machine to help the grass grow...
(Not sure the actual names for the machines but hey..... science)
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