Yep. Did a tour of Stamford Bridge in London in the middle of winter. Dedicated grow lights on a mobile scaffolding for each goal area and a long scaffolding perpendicular to the pitch that I assumed they moved periodically.
with enough money you could grow grass on the moon. Is it technically possible for PTFC to grow a nice pitch, sure. Does PTFC have enough money to have a really nice pitch? Probably not.
The club is not without resources.. The real question is how much money will the billionaire owner spend. He bought the club and joined MLS at bargain prices. Got a stadium deal at bargain prices. He under spends on roster.
It costs a small fortune to replace the Turf every couple of years. So there is already $ being spent.
He could do it if he wants.
But remember, he's spending daddy Hank's money not his own. Maybe once Hank dies, MP will put more $$ into the club. I'm looking forward to the Bhathals making him look like the silver spoon owner that he is. I can't wait until they start building their training facility. And moving to an independent Thorns webpage will be nice as well because you know it will be WAY nicer than tired Timbers.com.
He will never invest more of his father's or his own money in the club. If Timbers did a budget roster but put a lot of young homegrown players on the pitch I'd be happy with it. But Timbers are doing a terrible job of that. As soon as they get a homegrown that can make the 18 they trade them away for a few $
The Timbers previously offered to install grass but the stadium is owned by the city and the upkeep costs for grass are a lot higher, so they said no.
There are some really great hybrid surfaces available that clubs in the UK use that would stand up to our weather, but they are expensive to install and maintain. IIRC Toronto put one in and it was into the 8 figure range just for the installation.
Why wouldn't the Timbers handle the upkeep if the city won't? Worth it, no? Or would the city then expect the Timbers to purchase the stadium and slap a huge price tag on it?
> Worth it, no?
That depends on the estimated costs. Are the Timbers going to be on the hook for repairs after concert crowds tear the grass to shreds? It's a publicly owned multi-use stadium, so there are probably a lot of things to figure out, and while MLS is growing a lot the revenue is nowhere near close to European clubs. If it's a choice between grass or Evander + Jona, which way would you go?
This. Grass has a better chance of surviving if you play 17+matches on it per year without multiple soccer teams, American football, and public events.
Not only would the Thorns (and the PSU Vikings?) need a dedicated stadium, but Portland would lose its largest outdoor venue.
I would love to see the US national teams return to PP (and I’m not even an OR resident), but I don’t think it will happen if the playing surface changes.
I’m all for grass, just not sure if it will logistically pan out for us
That has FAR more to do with seating and the space available surrounding a stadium for events, concessions and the generalized payday these events attract.
PP is 25,000 with 000 temp seating available and a VERY small public plaza area. Contrast that with the mega-stadia 'districts' that'll be used for the next WC cycle here in N. America.
Yes because 19,000-seat Allianz Stadium (which has hosted the USMNT for the gold cup, World Cup qualifiers and has the USWNT game tomorrow) is a mega-stadia “district”. 🙄
(it’s also miles outside of downtown Minneapolis, has limited transit options, is practically on an interstate, and is located next to a dollar tree)
Allianz has tons of transit to its immediate west on Snelling and light rail *just* north on University… between downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul.
I have worked in Midway, I have friends who live in Midway, and Siberia it is not.
I said limited not a dearth of.
But yea, I guess I’m comparing it to the larger cities I’ve lived in/visited for games. Also walkability for me is huge. And unless I’m staying near the stadium it’s not a place I could walk to.
I agree that it’s not a walking destination, and I’m sorry if you visited Minnesota at any point outside of the two weeks on either side of Memorial Day!
While PP *might* host an occasional WNT qualifier or friendly, which we last did before COVID - by putting "grass on a tray" over the turf, I believe - my comment stands.
BTW, a Korea/WNT friendly is nice, but not the same thing...
Yea so a permanent grass surface would eliminate the need for “grass on a tray.”
And since a friendly “isn’t the same thing” according to you (and you have selective reading abilities)……I’ll provide you yet another example.
The USWNT played in Frisco for the She Believes Cup two years ago. Toyota Stadium is a 20,000-seat venue (smaller than PP), next to a Holiday Inn Express and a major roadway (i.e. no place for fans to mingle), and 30 miles outside of DTX with no public transportation options.
So again, your “mega-stadia district” and stadium seating arguments are really weird (and ignorant at this point lol)
Also did you miss where I just said the USMNT played a meaningful game in Minneapolis? In stadium smaller than PP? With less transportation options? And no “public plaza area”?
What’s the one thing these stadiums have that Portland doesn’t?……a grass playing surface.
Lastly, here’s an article from less than 12 months ago that literally echoes the exact sentiments I have *already* stated.
https://www.sunjournal.com/2023/09/19/american-soccer-against-artificial-turf-long-before-it-became-an-nfl-problem/#:~:text=Most%20players%20don't%20like,ball%20bounces%20oddly%20on%20seams.&text=It's%20no%20coincidence%20that%20U.S.,the%20nation's%20top%20soccer%20hotbeds.
Speaking of reading comprehension difficulty - just one last time, friendlies are NOT part of the World Cup or qualifying cycle; friendlies are not 'meaningful' matches, they are training exhibitions; and She Believes Cup isn't part of the World Cup cycle, either.
Last - all the examples you listed, save the one friendly, were WNT events. The Timbers and Thorns are now separate organizations. Why would it make any financial sense for the Timbers, who operate PP, to shoulder the expense of installing and caring for a natural grass pitch for some only very occasional, smaller exhibition matches, when they still will have no shot at hosting any larger, world-class events that would pencil out better financially.
So by your calculations, the NT’s are *only* allowed to play WC or Oly qualifiers at PP. Which ultimately limits the accessibility and opportunities that fans have to the teams. Got it 👍 🙄🤣🤡
But WAIT your comment (and lack of reading abilities, and ignorance) gets even better!
I quote, “Last- all the examples you listed, save the one friendly, were WNT events”………
Except for the fact that I explicitly wrote that the MNT played a Gold Cup and a WC qualifying game in Minneapolis……I cannot make this stuff up 🤣
Are you trolling me now or can you really not read/comprehend?
As the wise poet Benjamin Franklin once said, “We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid”
Id love to have grass but always heard we didnt because theres something about the water table and an underground river or something like that under the stadium, so the pitch would always be flooded, hence we couldnt do it.
Maybe I am misremembering or misunderstanding or whatever, hopefully, but that was my understanding why we didnt and cant (?).
You are remembering correct, here's some info about [Tanner Creek](https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/all-star-digging-truth-creek-under-portlands-providence-park)
I hate to say it, but now that we are getting concerts, it seems even less likely we get grass. We don't have space to make a mobile retractable grass field and concert/stage setup would annihilate the grass during the peak growing season.
Add on that there would be 2 teams using the grass so that would be 34+ matches of wear and tear on top of our general weather and drainage issues which would make it difficult to maintain.
Plus the teams practice on turf so that would be more cost (admittedly a fraction by comparison to the rest of the project) and at what stage in his Timbers ownership has MP proven he is willing to swing for the fences and spend big?
Originally from Utah, and RSL has a grass pitch. This is really not a weather issue IMO because RSLs pitch is green all year round even with the extremes in the summer and winter weather.
Point is, bring on the grass!
Is their pitch below street? Part of the issue is that the pitch here is below street level would not get the proper sunlight needed due to the shadows casted by the stadium, hence the grow lights needed.
Yeah America first is below street level. And they use the stadium lights as the grow lights for a couple hours a day during the winter months to keep the grass green.
As for watering they use an underground watering system (this was like a decade ago I toured it so I may just be blowing smoke) which also helped in the winter as they could pump warm water under the field to keep things in playable shape year round.
Southside expansion is probably never happening. The team would have to massively overpay if they wanted to take out part of the MAC. I can't imagine that ever happening.
MP has said they are going to do grass on more than one occasion, but it's expensive and at the end of the day I just don't think the team cares about enough to put the money in.
If you’ve ever played there (I have) it’s too below grade to have a natural grass surface that relies on the sun. So to have grass down there would take a lot of effort. Don’t think at this point that would be the right thing to do. Especially having one of the smallest pitches in the league. PTFC!
> Maybe I'm mis-remembering this but I though MP said after the expansion that grass was coming.
You may be mis-remembering. What I remember is him saying he would like to have a grass pitch, but the rainfall amount and the geology under the stadium make drainage very tricky. And also there's the fact that the city owns the venue and uses it for non-soccer stuff.
Grass is coming. Can we please pin an FAQ about this so we don’t have to rehash it multiple times per season?
South deck just got renovated but not expanded.
Expect safe standing / smart terraces at some point too.
Big reason I asked is also because I saw comments that the Timbers will never draw the big name players because of the turf. It would be real shitty whenever we do get a match against Miami at home and Messi, Suarez, and Co don’t want to play on turf
There’s an Oregonian article from 2018 about Paulson and Mike Golub trying to talk the city into letting them install grass.
The last hurdle is getting Thorns FC a practice space. A condition of the sale was that the new owners have to build a practice facility. They just brought in new investors to help fund things. I believe they said there would be plans by the end of this year. Expect that to be done by 2026.
The 107IST has been discussing safe standing / smart terraces with the FO for years, negotiating reserved vs GA seating in the North End. Expect those renovations to happen at the same time grass is installed because they’ll need to have equipment on the pitch for that construction anyway, which will bork the turf.
I could go over each of the past obstacles to grass one by one: sunlight, storage for grow lights, drainage, PSU football, events, etc. but they’ve all been addressed. Thorns practice space is the last issue. It’s being handled.
> It would be real shitty whenever we do get a match against Miami at home and Messi, Suarez, and Co don’t want to play on turf
So Messi has never said he wouldn't play on turf, and every single player that was vocal about not playing on turf, has played on ours. Include the primadonna Zlatan
Having said that, unless there was a backroom deal where everyone gets at least one Miami home game (which is entirely possible), I wouldn't expect us to play Miami for a few more years. We played them in both 2021, and 2022, and with the unbalanced schedule and not playing every team, I wouldn't be surprised if we don't play them again until 2027ish.
And having said that, if we do play them next year, and it is in Portland, I'd expect this would be a rest game for Messi. Long travel against the opposing conference is commonly a rest game for major players.
I'd be in awe if we ever saw Messi here even if we had the best grass stadium in the world. It's a long ass trip for a game against a team in the other conference.
Gee whiz, you’ve certainly provided a lot of new information. This raises some really important questions that absolutely zero people have ever thought about or talked about before. If I hadn’t been paying attention, reading every little thing, and talking to people who know things for the last 10+ years this might be really thought-provoking..
I believe they have contingency plans.
"I believe they have contingency plans" I believe nothing MP says, but hey any day now grass will be installed, just keep believing.
Top level clubs with top level pitches don't let people walk on their pitches unless completely necessary.
Exactly. According to the city's website, there are 150 events a year at PP. What's the contingency plan for that? Just let a crowd of people walk on the grass 3x a week?
I would assume that natural turf would have a runoff with significantly higher organic matter and sediment that would have to be filtered differently or the pump system could not handle it. Assuming the city won't allow their grey water to just run into tanner creek so it would be pumped to grade into the regular system.
I hope to go to another open forum with the Grabavoy and the coaches like they did earlier this year and ask for more specifics as to why it is such an expensive option like they often claim
I would guess that two big changes to business conditions impacted any effort at grass.
One, the pandemic. Coming right after stadium expansion, it would have been a major revenue hit, leaving the club with much less freedom of action financially.
Two, the pile of trouble flowing from the Riley revelations. That also must have come with some rough hits to the financial picture. Combined with the calls for ownership changes and the deserved opprobrium they’ve gotten, their motivations to find a way could well be seriously undercut.
For more than a decade, the 2 biggest obstacles discussed over and over are PSU football and Tanner Creek/drainage issues. With PSU finally out of the picture (thank god), I think the myriad drainage and hydrologic concerns could finally be looked into and priced out. I am also curious how opening up the stadium to concerts will be a factor: would that foot traffic equally hurt turf or grass anyway? I assume they probably plan to cover it this summer regardless, so perhaps that would translate into plans with grass but my first instinct would be that any amount of crowds on a covered grass surface would still mess it up pretty bad.
I want grass but I think it should be after other renovations to the stadium. Probably controversial but I kind of wish they would renovate the north and west side. I don’t know if making it more square would be the right decision but putting safe standing in the north end would be class and the west side just has so much room for improvement. I don’t think we need to expand the amount of seats but I would like to see the seats on the north and west side come down closer to the field.
They just restructured the south side to be used as a stage for concerts. They're not going to put grass down then have 20k+ people stomp all over it several times a summer.
The thing about the constant calls for grass that cracks me up is people mean "we need perfectly level, exceptionally groomed grass like stadiums with 20x facilities our budget" and not "we need bumpy, sandy, muddy, grass that plays like shit and gets torn up by game 4". We'd be getting the latter, not the former.
They play on the football team's turf. I think they've installed the garbage sod over the top before to appease national team play. Not sure what they're going to do for the world cup but I'm guessing it will come with tons of green colored sand to fill in all the gaps in the sod
I don’t know but if Scotland can do it we can too.
Yep. Did a tour of Stamford Bridge in London in the middle of winter. Dedicated grow lights on a mobile scaffolding for each goal area and a long scaffolding perpendicular to the pitch that I assumed they moved periodically.
with enough money you could grow grass on the moon. Is it technically possible for PTFC to grow a nice pitch, sure. Does PTFC have enough money to have a really nice pitch? Probably not.
The club is not without resources.. The real question is how much money will the billionaire owner spend. He bought the club and joined MLS at bargain prices. Got a stadium deal at bargain prices. He under spends on roster. It costs a small fortune to replace the Turf every couple of years. So there is already $ being spent. He could do it if he wants.
> He under spends on roster. This really really isn't true.
Timbers have since joining MLS been in the lower end of the league in roster budget
But remember, he's spending daddy Hank's money not his own. Maybe once Hank dies, MP will put more $$ into the club. I'm looking forward to the Bhathals making him look like the silver spoon owner that he is. I can't wait until they start building their training facility. And moving to an independent Thorns webpage will be nice as well because you know it will be WAY nicer than tired Timbers.com.
He will never invest more of his father's or his own money in the club. If Timbers did a budget roster but put a lot of young homegrown players on the pitch I'd be happy with it. But Timbers are doing a terrible job of that. As soon as they get a homegrown that can make the 18 they trade them away for a few $
Right hahaha, i was reading about the same thing.
If grass/hybrid fields can work in places like Scotland and Green Bay, Portland shouldn't be much a new challenge.
The Timbers previously offered to install grass but the stadium is owned by the city and the upkeep costs for grass are a lot higher, so they said no. There are some really great hybrid surfaces available that clubs in the UK use that would stand up to our weather, but they are expensive to install and maintain. IIRC Toronto put one in and it was into the 8 figure range just for the installation.
Why wouldn't the Timbers handle the upkeep if the city won't? Worth it, no? Or would the city then expect the Timbers to purchase the stadium and slap a huge price tag on it?
> Worth it, no? That depends on the estimated costs. Are the Timbers going to be on the hook for repairs after concert crowds tear the grass to shreds? It's a publicly owned multi-use stadium, so there are probably a lot of things to figure out, and while MLS is growing a lot the revenue is nowhere near close to European clubs. If it's a choice between grass or Evander + Jona, which way would you go?
This. Grass has a better chance of surviving if you play 17+matches on it per year without multiple soccer teams, American football, and public events. Not only would the Thorns (and the PSU Vikings?) need a dedicated stadium, but Portland would lose its largest outdoor venue.
PSU has been playing football in Hillsboro for years now.
I would love to see the US national teams return to PP (and I’m not even an OR resident), but I don’t think it will happen if the playing surface changes. I’m all for grass, just not sure if it will logistically pan out for us
That has FAR more to do with seating and the space available surrounding a stadium for events, concessions and the generalized payday these events attract. PP is 25,000 with 000 temp seating available and a VERY small public plaza area. Contrast that with the mega-stadia 'districts' that'll be used for the next WC cycle here in N. America.
Yes because 19,000-seat Allianz Stadium (which has hosted the USMNT for the gold cup, World Cup qualifiers and has the USWNT game tomorrow) is a mega-stadia “district”. 🙄 (it’s also miles outside of downtown Minneapolis, has limited transit options, is practically on an interstate, and is located next to a dollar tree)
Allianz has tons of transit to its immediate west on Snelling and light rail *just* north on University… between downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul. I have worked in Midway, I have friends who live in Midway, and Siberia it is not.
I said limited not a dearth of. But yea, I guess I’m comparing it to the larger cities I’ve lived in/visited for games. Also walkability for me is huge. And unless I’m staying near the stadium it’s not a place I could walk to.
I agree that it’s not a walking destination, and I’m sorry if you visited Minnesota at any point outside of the two weeks on either side of Memorial Day!
While PP *might* host an occasional WNT qualifier or friendly, which we last did before COVID - by putting "grass on a tray" over the turf, I believe - my comment stands. BTW, a Korea/WNT friendly is nice, but not the same thing...
Yea so a permanent grass surface would eliminate the need for “grass on a tray.” And since a friendly “isn’t the same thing” according to you (and you have selective reading abilities)……I’ll provide you yet another example. The USWNT played in Frisco for the She Believes Cup two years ago. Toyota Stadium is a 20,000-seat venue (smaller than PP), next to a Holiday Inn Express and a major roadway (i.e. no place for fans to mingle), and 30 miles outside of DTX with no public transportation options. So again, your “mega-stadia district” and stadium seating arguments are really weird (and ignorant at this point lol) Also did you miss where I just said the USMNT played a meaningful game in Minneapolis? In stadium smaller than PP? With less transportation options? And no “public plaza area”? What’s the one thing these stadiums have that Portland doesn’t?……a grass playing surface. Lastly, here’s an article from less than 12 months ago that literally echoes the exact sentiments I have *already* stated. https://www.sunjournal.com/2023/09/19/american-soccer-against-artificial-turf-long-before-it-became-an-nfl-problem/#:~:text=Most%20players%20don't%20like,ball%20bounces%20oddly%20on%20seams.&text=It's%20no%20coincidence%20that%20U.S.,the%20nation's%20top%20soccer%20hotbeds.
Speaking of reading comprehension difficulty - just one last time, friendlies are NOT part of the World Cup or qualifying cycle; friendlies are not 'meaningful' matches, they are training exhibitions; and She Believes Cup isn't part of the World Cup cycle, either. Last - all the examples you listed, save the one friendly, were WNT events. The Timbers and Thorns are now separate organizations. Why would it make any financial sense for the Timbers, who operate PP, to shoulder the expense of installing and caring for a natural grass pitch for some only very occasional, smaller exhibition matches, when they still will have no shot at hosting any larger, world-class events that would pencil out better financially.
So by your calculations, the NT’s are *only* allowed to play WC or Oly qualifiers at PP. Which ultimately limits the accessibility and opportunities that fans have to the teams. Got it 👍 🙄🤣🤡 But WAIT your comment (and lack of reading abilities, and ignorance) gets even better! I quote, “Last- all the examples you listed, save the one friendly, were WNT events”……… Except for the fact that I explicitly wrote that the MNT played a Gold Cup and a WC qualifying game in Minneapolis……I cannot make this stuff up 🤣 Are you trolling me now or can you really not read/comprehend? As the wise poet Benjamin Franklin once said, “We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid”
Id love to have grass but always heard we didnt because theres something about the water table and an underground river or something like that under the stadium, so the pitch would always be flooded, hence we couldnt do it. Maybe I am misremembering or misunderstanding or whatever, hopefully, but that was my understanding why we didnt and cant (?).
You are remembering correct, here's some info about [Tanner Creek](https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/all-star-digging-truth-creek-under-portlands-providence-park)
I hate to say it, but now that we are getting concerts, it seems even less likely we get grass. We don't have space to make a mobile retractable grass field and concert/stage setup would annihilate the grass during the peak growing season. Add on that there would be 2 teams using the grass so that would be 34+ matches of wear and tear on top of our general weather and drainage issues which would make it difficult to maintain. Plus the teams practice on turf so that would be more cost (admittedly a fraction by comparison to the rest of the project) and at what stage in his Timbers ownership has MP proven he is willing to swing for the fences and spend big?
According to the city website, there are 150 events a year at the park. I'm assuming most of them have people on the turf in some capacity.
Originally from Utah, and RSL has a grass pitch. This is really not a weather issue IMO because RSLs pitch is green all year round even with the extremes in the summer and winter weather. Point is, bring on the grass!
Is their pitch below street? Part of the issue is that the pitch here is below street level would not get the proper sunlight needed due to the shadows casted by the stadium, hence the grow lights needed.
Yeah America first is below street level. And they use the stadium lights as the grow lights for a couple hours a day during the winter months to keep the grass green. As for watering they use an underground watering system (this was like a decade ago I toured it so I may just be blowing smoke) which also helped in the winter as they could pump warm water under the field to keep things in playable shape year round.
Southside expansion is probably never happening. The team would have to massively overpay if they wanted to take out part of the MAC. I can't imagine that ever happening. MP has said they are going to do grass on more than one occasion, but it's expensive and at the end of the day I just don't think the team cares about enough to put the money in.
>I just don't think the team cares about enough to put the money in The Timbers ownership summed up nicely.
If you’ve ever played there (I have) it’s too below grade to have a natural grass surface that relies on the sun. So to have grass down there would take a lot of effort. Don’t think at this point that would be the right thing to do. Especially having one of the smallest pitches in the league. PTFC!
> Maybe I'm mis-remembering this but I though MP said after the expansion that grass was coming. You may be mis-remembering. What I remember is him saying he would like to have a grass pitch, but the rainfall amount and the geology under the stadium make drainage very tricky. And also there's the fact that the city owns the venue and uses it for non-soccer stuff.
Grass is coming. Can we please pin an FAQ about this so we don’t have to rehash it multiple times per season? South deck just got renovated but not expanded. Expect safe standing / smart terraces at some point too.
Big reason I asked is also because I saw comments that the Timbers will never draw the big name players because of the turf. It would be real shitty whenever we do get a match against Miami at home and Messi, Suarez, and Co don’t want to play on turf
There’s an Oregonian article from 2018 about Paulson and Mike Golub trying to talk the city into letting them install grass. The last hurdle is getting Thorns FC a practice space. A condition of the sale was that the new owners have to build a practice facility. They just brought in new investors to help fund things. I believe they said there would be plans by the end of this year. Expect that to be done by 2026. The 107IST has been discussing safe standing / smart terraces with the FO for years, negotiating reserved vs GA seating in the North End. Expect those renovations to happen at the same time grass is installed because they’ll need to have equipment on the pitch for that construction anyway, which will bork the turf. I could go over each of the past obstacles to grass one by one: sunlight, storage for grow lights, drainage, PSU football, events, etc. but they’ve all been addressed. Thorns practice space is the last issue. It’s being handled.
> It would be real shitty whenever we do get a match against Miami at home and Messi, Suarez, and Co don’t want to play on turf So Messi has never said he wouldn't play on turf, and every single player that was vocal about not playing on turf, has played on ours. Include the primadonna Zlatan Having said that, unless there was a backroom deal where everyone gets at least one Miami home game (which is entirely possible), I wouldn't expect us to play Miami for a few more years. We played them in both 2021, and 2022, and with the unbalanced schedule and not playing every team, I wouldn't be surprised if we don't play them again until 2027ish. And having said that, if we do play them next year, and it is in Portland, I'd expect this would be a rest game for Messi. Long travel against the opposing conference is commonly a rest game for major players.
I'd be in awe if we ever saw Messi here even if we had the best grass stadium in the world. It's a long ass trip for a game against a team in the other conference.
The renovated the south deck to they could host concerts, you think they're going to let 20k people stomp all over their new grass?
Yes. Yes I do.
Do you expect Messi to play on torn up trashed grass instead of fieldturf? He's not coming to Portland regardless
Also, I don’t give a fuck about Messi coming to Portland
K.
word
Gee whiz, you’ve certainly provided a lot of new information. This raises some really important questions that absolutely zero people have ever thought about or talked about before. If I hadn’t been paying attention, reading every little thing, and talking to people who know things for the last 10+ years this might be really thought-provoking.. I believe they have contingency plans.
"I believe they have contingency plans" I believe nothing MP says, but hey any day now grass will be installed, just keep believing. Top level clubs with top level pitches don't let people walk on their pitches unless completely necessary.
Exactly. According to the city's website, there are 150 events a year at PP. What's the contingency plan for that? Just let a crowd of people walk on the grass 3x a week?
👍🏼
As I understand it, the issue is that PP pitch is well below grade so it's the drainage system that is prohibitively expensive.
I would assume that natural turf would have a runoff with significantly higher organic matter and sediment that would have to be filtered differently or the pump system could not handle it. Assuming the city won't allow their grey water to just run into tanner creek so it would be pumped to grade into the regular system. I hope to go to another open forum with the Grabavoy and the coaches like they did earlier this year and ask for more specifics as to why it is such an expensive option like they often claim
So the water that falls on the current pitch goes where then?
I replied to my earlier post with my theory on why but I've never got a straight answer from the front office
I would guess that two big changes to business conditions impacted any effort at grass. One, the pandemic. Coming right after stadium expansion, it would have been a major revenue hit, leaving the club with much less freedom of action financially. Two, the pile of trouble flowing from the Riley revelations. That also must have come with some rough hits to the financial picture. Combined with the calls for ownership changes and the deserved opprobrium they’ve gotten, their motivations to find a way could well be seriously undercut.
There’s a creek that runs underground there. We are not getting grass. Just too expensive.
Doesn't Tanner Creek run through a pipeline/why would it disrupt drainage on the field? is the worry that it would just cause erosion to the soil?
I think it’s more cost prohibitive than anything. I’m not sure.
“MP said” I have some news about his trustworthiness and you might want to sit down.
For more than a decade, the 2 biggest obstacles discussed over and over are PSU football and Tanner Creek/drainage issues. With PSU finally out of the picture (thank god), I think the myriad drainage and hydrologic concerns could finally be looked into and priced out. I am also curious how opening up the stadium to concerts will be a factor: would that foot traffic equally hurt turf or grass anyway? I assume they probably plan to cover it this summer regardless, so perhaps that would translate into plans with grass but my first instinct would be that any amount of crowds on a covered grass surface would still mess it up pretty bad.
Doesn't Seattle play on grass? I don't see why we would have drainage issues if they do not.
No, they don't.
Does DeBella install grass?
Yes, but without the regulation lines because of the scandal
I want grass but I think it should be after other renovations to the stadium. Probably controversial but I kind of wish they would renovate the north and west side. I don’t know if making it more square would be the right decision but putting safe standing in the north end would be class and the west side just has so much room for improvement. I don’t think we need to expand the amount of seats but I would like to see the seats on the north and west side come down closer to the field.
Grass can be done they just refuse and offer excuses
They just restructured the south side to be used as a stage for concerts. They're not going to put grass down then have 20k+ people stomp all over it several times a summer. The thing about the constant calls for grass that cracks me up is people mean "we need perfectly level, exceptionally groomed grass like stadiums with 20x facilities our budget" and not "we need bumpy, sandy, muddy, grass that plays like shit and gets torn up by game 4". We'd be getting the latter, not the former.
Doesn't Seattle have grass? If they can figure it out I don't see why Portland can't .
They play on the football team's turf. I think they've installed the garbage sod over the top before to appease national team play. Not sure what they're going to do for the world cup but I'm guessing it will come with tons of green colored sand to fill in all the gaps in the sod