The grass is greener on the outside

[Pessimistic]

News is a well known roofed footy stadium has a playing surface which is abysmal. Seems the grass refuses to grow and the operators have abandoned the 'pallet' system in favour of buying turf in and waiting for it to die before replacing it again - using the old fashioned 'ground forve' method of bringing it in in rolls.

No it's not Colonial but the Millenium stadium in Cardiff, Wales. Seems they had to give undertakings before they got the go-ahead to host the next 4 FA cups there.

I saw this snippet of news while over there on holiday.

 

[Stealth bomber]

Still beats AstroTurf.

 

[JUBJUB]

Its not just roofed stadiums grass that have been FAcuped.
Just ask the dickheads at the Geelong Council.

[This message has been edited by JUBJUB (edited 18 January 2001).]

[This message has been edited by JUBJUB (edited 18 January 2001).]

 

[Bloodstained Angel]

Well, its nice to know that sometimes those terribly advanced, high-tech Europeans can stuff it up as well !

Why didn't they do for the technology employed in Holland at the Home Ground of Feyenord ?

The WHOLE pitch is mounted a giant platform that slides the entire pitch out of the stadium and into the adjoining carpark so that it gets all the ven sunlight and water it needs. Then on match days the whole thing is slid back under the grandstands and into the middle of the stadium again.

now THATS impressive !

cheers

 

[BUBBALOUIS]

Apparantly there has been a major breakthrough and discovery, grass needs sunshine to grow. Hard to believe i know but im assured its true.

 

[Pessimistic]

Now if they could breed/clone turf with marijuana genes, they could line colonial stadium with tinfoil and suspend thousands of 100watt bulbs over it - should work a treat !

 

[Bloodstained Angel]

Colonial gone to pot ?

 

[Stealth bomber]

Now if they could breed/clone turf with marijuana genes, they could line colonial stadium with tinfoil and suspend thousands of 100watt bulbs over it - should work a treat!

They should just call Carl Spackler, the greenskeeper from Caddyshack

"I invented my own kinda grass."

 

[elt]

As long as that doesn't introduce a gopher problem Stealth

 

[Same Old's]

Originally posted by Bloodstained Angel:
Well, its nice to know that sometimes those terribly advanced, high-tech Europeans can stuff it up as well !

Why didn't they do for the technology employed in Holland at the Home Ground of Feyenord ?

The WHOLE pitch is mounted a giant platform that slides the entire pitch out of the stadium and into the adjoining carpark so that it gets all the ven sunlight and water it needs. Then on match days the whole thing is slid back under the grandstands and into the middle of the stadium again.

now THATS impressive !

cheers

BSA,

That would still not eliminate the problem of watching games there in the day time with the roof open. With the large shadows it looks like a shocker, especially on television.

 

[Same Old's]

Originally posted by Stealth bomber:

Still beats AstroTurf.

At least AstroTurf is green.

 

[Dipper]

Hey Bloodstained Angel it's nice to know that you see us as 'terribly advanced & high tech' & there was me going green with envy at the gloriousness of Stadium Australia which over here we keep being told is the most cutting edge sports arena anywhere.I think the problem with the Millenium Stadium & others like it in Europe isn't the lack of sunlight as much as that they have a fully surrounding wall with no gaps (if u look ath the older British stadiums most of them have gaps between the stands that run along the sides of the pitch & the terraces behind the goals ie Arsenal ,West Ham)& this doesn't allow the wind to dry the grass which is a major problem with all the rain we get her.

Anyway talking of Astro turf i'm reminded of a quote by American football legend Joe Namath when he played for the NY Jets in the 60's,A reporter asked him if he prefered Grass or Astro turf & he replied (apparently in all seriosness)'I don't know I've never smoked Astro turf'-hehehehe that one always cracks me up.

 

[Stealth bomber]

At least AstroTurf is green.

Usually...though when it gets old it takes on this ugly mint-colour look.

One university in Idaho actually has a blue field. Looks shocking.

I've played gridiron on the plastic stuff before and I can't stand it. I'll take brown dead grass over that any day of the week.

Astroturf's days are numbered though; a new synthetic surface came out recently called FieldTurf and it's quickly being installed at a lot of college fields. One NFL team and one Major League Baseball team currently use it. Astroturf came out with it's own, similar product even more recently and now there's a big ugly lawsuit over patent infringement.

Ahh yes, litigation. It's the American way.