Natural Grass vs Artificial/Field Turf

[AttackOfTheClones]

Sorry .... turf management lovers

~ It's time to REPLACE our grass field.

~ Looks dull on TV
~ It doesn't hold up with the elements in September.
~ Grass goes dormant, in October, and looks terrible in November
~ Purdy slipped late in the game on a rollout in the backfield---stopping a drive in Iowa territory
~ Iowa running backs would of been stopped for no gain, or short yardage several times in the 4th qtr--yet turned them into 12-14 yard gains while our linebackers/dbacks were slipping all over (watch the replay)
~ This week calls for more RAIN from Tuesday-Saturday in Ames, and another crappy field for Louisiana-Monroe

When is this bizarre love-affair with grass going to end ? Good gawd. Why our we concerned with offending our Turf Management department?

Look at other stadiums---in November--at NIGHT. Their fields look fantastic in person w/ FieldTurf, and fantastic on TV.

Discuss.....

 

[keepngoal]

hahahahahahahahaha

 

[BCClone]

Sorry .... turf management lovers

~ It's time to REPLACE our grass field.

~ Looks dull on TV
~ It doesn't hold up with the elements in September.
~ Grass goes dormant, in October, and looks terrible in November
~ Purdy slipped late in the game on a rollout in the backfield---stopping a drive in Iowa territory
~ Iowa running backs would of been stopped for no gain, or short yardage several times in the 4th qtr--yet turned them into 12-14 yard gains while our linebackers/dbacks were slipping all over (watch the replay)
~ This week calls for more RAIN from Tuesday-Saturday in Ames, and another crappy field for Louisiana-Monroe

When is this bizarre love-affair with grass going to end ? Good gawd. Why our we concerned with offending our Turf Management department?

Look at other stadiums---in November--at NIGHT. Their fields look fantastic in person w/ FieldTurf, and fantastic on TV.

Discuss.....

Talked to a hawk fan who was on the field for the game. He raved about our grass field. Thought it was the best field he’d seen.

 

[Knownothing]

I honestly don't understand the love affair with the grass either. We live in the North. Our weather get's messy. The field was terrible Saturday for both teams, (students made it worse).

 

[Trice]

A few years ago I heard a quote from a project that to get field turf installed was about $1 million and its useful life was about 10 years. This was for a community field with multiple games played on it every week as well as other sports throughout the year.

So add inflation plus presumably using the most premium product available and let's say it cost $3-4M and lasts 10 years - perhaps more if nobody else uses it. For all the time/effort/resources poured into a natural turf field, is there not an economic case to be made for synthetic?

To be clear, I'm not advocating for the switch. Just wondering if it makes sense, purely financially.

 

[Beernuts]

It wasn't the field that caused the loss. It was three plays:

1) not fair catching the kick off and placing the team on the 5 yard line which resulted in the only Iowa TD

2) Brocks fumble when we were driving in the 2nd quarter

3) The incredible completion Stanley made in the 3rd quarter.

 

[DeereClone]

I honestly don't understand the love affair with the grass either. We live in the North. Our weather get's messy. The field was terrible Saturday for both teams, (students made it worse).

LOL no they didn't.

A bunch of 140 lb frat boys wearing sperry's had no impact on the field conditions

 

[DeereClone]

I love the grass field but turf would be really nice. I'm torn.

 

[Stewo]

The grass at JTS is awesome, but I'd be just fine with the artificial stuff. I'm starting to think Campbell is going to advocate for the same starting next season.

 

[Walden4Prez]

3) The incredible completion Stanley made in the 3rd quarter.

Made possible by a blatant hold directly in front of the official.

Those officials had to have some real balls to call us for a hold after what Iowa did to our guys all day without a flag.

 

[Knownothing]

Yeah and the block in the back. However, we were playing a power running game team. Crap field is a huge advantage to our style of game which is more of a speed game. If we had turf. We would have had a huge advantage vs Iowa and the power running game.

 

[kcdc4isu]

It wasn't the field that caused the loss. It was three plays:

1) not fair catching the kick off and placing the team on the 5 yard line which resulted in the only Iowa TD

2) Brocks fumble when we were driving in the 2nd quarter

3) The incredible completion Stanley made in the 3rd quarter.

Add the last punt that hit our player in the back as he was trying to bloc k for our player.
To add a grass field is cooler in hot weather and is much more forgiving to players bodies.

 

[BillBrasky4Cy]

Iowa State has what is considered to be one of the best natural grass surfaces in the country and I agree that it's time to move on to a synthetic surface. There's a reason why we are one of the few northern schools still playing on grass. Who's left? NW, Mich St, Penn St, and Notre Dame?

 

[SECyclone]

Add the last punt that hit our player in the back as he was trying to bloc k for our player.
To add a grass field is cooler in hot weather and is much more forgiving to players bodies.

Exactly! Baylor I believe took the temp of their turf and it was like 140 I believe last week??? I've played on turf in the summer and if you aren't moving on a hot day you feel like your shoes are melting.

 

[harimad]

Iowa State has what is considered to be one of the best natural grass surfaces in the country and I agree that it's time to move on to a synthetic surface. There's a reason why we are one of the few northern schools still playing on grass. Who's left? NW, Mich St, Penn St, and Notre Dame?

That's great company to be in. And like @SECyclone just stated, artificial turf is killer when it's hot. When we had turf in JTS, the field temperatures were ridiculous.

 

[BillBrasky4Cy]

Exactly! Baylor I believe took the temp of their turf and it was like 140 I believe last week??? I've played on turf in the summer and if you aren't moving on a hot day you feel like your shoes are melting.

That isn't a huge issue for the northern schools though.

 

[2forISU]

Made possible by a blatant hold directly in front of the official.

Those officials had to have some real balls to call us for a hold after what Iowa did to our guys all day without a flag.

 

[BCClone]

A few years ago I heard a quote from a project that to get field turf installed was about $1 million and its useful life was about 10 years. This was for a community field with multiple games played on it every week as well as other sports throughout the year.

So add inflation plus presumably using the most premium product available and let's say it cost $3-4M and lasts 10 years - perhaps more if nobody else uses it. For all the time/effort/resources poured into a natural turf field, is there not an economic case to be made for synthetic?

To be clear, I'm not advocating for the switch. Just wondering if it makes sense, purely financially.

Iowa just replaced their field turf, last one lasted 2-3 years. Heavy rains in the spring destroy them with the freezing thawing we have.

 

[BCClone]

Exactly! Baylor I believe took the temp of their turf and it was like 140 I believe last week??? I've played on turf in the summer and if you aren't moving on a hot day you feel like your shoes are melting.

Those rubber bb’s are awful. Have to fluff them and add to them all the time.

 

[2forISU]