B.C. Place to get new turf

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B.C.FAN
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I may have missed it but I haven't seen this reported elsewhere. As a condition of landing the World Rugby sevens series in March 2016, the B.C. Pavilion Corp., Rugby Canada and the Canadian Soccer Association have agreed to foot the bill for installation of a new turf at B.C. Place in time for the Women's World Cup soccer tournament in June. The Lions aren't mentioned in the announcement but presumably they'll benefit from the new turf without contributing directly to the cost.
World Rugby requires that the blade height of the synthetic grass must be 60 millimetres for any of its sanctioned events. The current BC Place turf, a Polytan product installed at a cost of $1.2 million in 2011, is 40 mm.

That turf meets the requirements of FIFA. But several top international female players, who filed and then abandoned a human rights complaint alleging gender discrimination because the World Cup was not being played on grass, complained bitterly about the BC Place surface. It was used during FIFA Olympic qualifying in 2012.

In their brief, the players said it was like "playing on concrete," and that artificial turf was harder on their joints and led to more injuries and ugly turf burns.

Monday's announcement said the cost of the turf replacement will be shared by the B.C. Pavilion Corp., which runs BC Place, Rugby Canada and the Canadian Soccer Association. Nobody was willing, however, to provide a breakdown.

PavCo declined to give even an estimated cost for the replacement, saying it will be determined by a formal tender process. The changeover is scheduled to take place in late May after a Vancouver Whitecaps home game May 16 against Seattle. The first Women's World Cup matches at BC Place are scheduled for June 8. Peter Montopoli, CEO of the organizing committee for the Women's World Cup, said in a statement that he was pleased "our commitment to ensuring that all playing surfaces (for the event) are of the highest quality."
BC Place to host World Rugby Sevens
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SammyGreene
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Given the current turf is not even four years old and is lightly used (basically just for games of 2 teams) compared to outdoor Lower Mainland turf fields, I sure hope it can be recycled and installed somewhere else.

Not sure how much of the tab BC Place is on the hook for but it's an upgrade that wouldn't happen or be needed without those two tournaments coming here.
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Hambone
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Thinking of the changeover from soccer to football and back I wonder which consumes more time; swapping the turf itself or erasing and repainting lines?
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Toppy Vann
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I think the old turf sounds like it will be gone (they use the word replace in the media release).

The game of soccer on turf (I used to love coaching my mens team on turf) favours teams with the best passing and ball control skills as the long ball is ineffective as the ball doesn't hit the turf like grass but ends up flying off the park.

In 1986 only Wales would agree to play at BC Place and England's Bobby Robson coached team - the better game went on grass at Swangard. I was checking to see the game result and it shows Empire but they made you buy tickets to both games - but only 9000 turned up for BC Place but Swangard had 15K.
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aklawitter
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I played football on the old Astroturf at BC Place (not FieldTurf or whatever brand they have now). That was as close to a gravel field as it gets.

No doubt the "elite" will still compare a 60mm state of the art surface to concrete.
TheLionKing
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Wonder if 20 mm would make any difference to the place kicker
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SammyGreene
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Hambone wrote:Thinking of the changeover from soccer to football and back I wonder which consumes more time; swapping the turf itself or erasing and repainting lines?
Good point Hambone. Is there enough storage room for 2 turf surfaces at BC Place? Interesting the Sounders are wanting the turf replaced at Century Link but it will be used for a 4th straight season. The two tenants also prefer different types of surfaces. I'm sure the Lions and Whitecaps have different opinions too.
The previous surface was replaced after three Sounders seasons. The current one apparently will be kept through a fourth season.

Neither the Seahawks nor the Sounders are commenting on the issue now, each waiting for a final agreement — which is expected after the Super Bowl.

The teams have admitted to different turf preferences, with the MLS team liking new fields with stand-up blades, while the NFL team prefers a broken-in field with tramped-down blades.

Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2015/01/2 ... rylink=cpy
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B.C.FAN
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Strictly from a fan's perspective, I hate the look of the olive-green B.C. Place turf. It just doesn't look like grass. It's not quite as bad as the turf at Rogers Centre in Toronto or Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg but it's among the ugliest I've seen at a North American pro sports stadium. The Astroturf installed at Empire Field in 2010 and preserved for the current conversion of the park to community soccer fields looks much more like grass.
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Hambone
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TheLionKing wrote:Wonder if 20 mm would make any difference to the place kicker
Only if they're looking for an excuse for their misses.
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squishy35
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I believe the field turf at Hillside Stadium in Kamloops (Lions' training camp) is 60 mm... I'll see if I can get someone there to verify.
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sj-roc
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B.C.FAN wrote:Strictly from a fan's perspective, I hate the look of the olive-green B.C. Place turf. It just doesn't look like grass. It's not quite as bad as the turf at Rogers Centre in Toronto or Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg but it's among the ugliest I've seen at a North American pro sports stadium. The Astroturf installed at Empire Field in 2010 and preserved for the current conversion of the park to community soccer fields looks much more like grass.
I've never really noticed this. What I have had a problem with turf-wise, and I know I've mentioned this several times before, are that ugly font they use for the yard numbers. Everyone seems to get it that when you put yard numbers on a football field, that they're supposed to be these big fat bold things. Everyone it seems, except for us. Why we insist on clinging to these things like a bad case of fleas I can't understand.

Image

I know they have to get scrubbed off and repainted on with each football <-> soccer field changeover but it's already such a big cleaning job to get the full playing surface reconfigured each time that I wonder if it would really increase the workload all that much. With much greater height than width and such thinness in the linestrokes, the current font which has been in use for as long as I can remember just doesn't look right to me for a football field.

I guess this is probably part of the reason why we don't see onfield ads @BCP except during playoff games, when this stuff is done at the league level.
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