From the Edmonton Journal:
EDMONTON — The natural grass field at Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium will be punted in favour of artificial turf if city council approves.
A report going to council on Wednesday recommends the city enter a cost-sharing agreement with the Edmonton Eskimos to replace Commonwealth Stadium’s natural grass field with artificial turf before the regular CFL football season starts in June.
“Due to challenges in ensuring field quality, along with maintenance expense, flexibility to accommodate a variety of events, rest time required by natural grass fields, and impact of inclement weather, the Edmonton Eskimos and the Community Services Department are in agreement that the natural grass field at Commonwealth Stadium should be replaced with an artificial turf field,” the report said.
The cost of converting the field will be $2.6 million. The project will require a draw of $2.1 million from the Commonwealth Stadium Reserve Fund with the Eskimos contributing $500,000 immediately. The football club would then repay its share of $800,000 over a six-year period, the report said.
Artificial turf will also requires less water and no fertilizer use, the report said.
8 comments:
Its about time ! No more home field advantage because of extra watering the grass to slow down the visiting teams !!
I'm glad to see the grass go, but I'm also sad. Commonwealth Stadium was a perfect venue for soccer events such as Canada friendlies, and the FIFA under-20 men and womens world cups. This will now leave BMO Field in Toronto as our only natural grass stadium.
Artificial turf? Why wouldn't they go with the Fieldturf that the Riders and so many other teams have.
In a way I agree with Kim. Does this mean Edmonton no longer wants to host some big events. An artificial/field turf field would mean no more track and field championships, no more international soccer, no dreams of hosting another Commonwealth games or bigger like a Pan-Am or dare I say it an Olympics. As a former Edmontonian, (GO ESKS GO) I'm not big on this.
Kyle T
Anon, FieldTurf is artificial turf...
Kyle
Edmonton will host the Summer Olympics about the same time Regina does. Athens - Beijing - London - the size of the host cities now is huge. And even if that were to happen Commenwealth would be 100 years old and likely due for replacement.
However losing a real grass field for soccer is a negative.
finally the Eskimos are taking back home field advantage.
Check out my blog for more:
http://brynster-mightymouth.blogspot.com/
Cheers,
Bryn Griffiths
It's about time... I'll explain why....
http://brynster-mightymouth.blogspot.com/
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