Seattle: scene and seen at MLS Cup 2009

by Steve Davis on Nov 18, 2009 6:22 PM EST Comment 22 comments

Since the players aren't here yet, may as well eat at Dick's

SEATTLE – Since it’s mostly going to be an MLS Cup-centric week (after today’s World Cup qualifiers, which Richard Farley told you about in the previous post), we may as well get the Pacific Northwest party started.

Here’s Bruce McGuire’s MLS Best 11 team from his blog. You’ll have to scroll down to find it. But dig, if you will, the picture, and peruse it slowly; like the Victoria Secret catalog, the DuNord site is worth a slow browse. Bruce follows the league closely and pours his bushy beard and his soul into the exceptional soccer news aggregator "cafe." If it’s about domestic soccer, and it’s not up somewhere on his DuNord site, then save yourself the trouble and just move along, because it’s not worth paying attention to.

Also, check out Shawn Francis’ new MLS insider blog. Shawn is a unique hybrid soccer geek-culture freak, and he manages to get the mix as right as Emmanuelle Chriqui on her best day. (And that’s a D-Cup full of "right," let me tell you.) I’m just sayin’ that if you want to do Seattle the right way, go hang with Shawn. I’ve got a feeling you won’t find him at any boring chain restaurants or ogling shirtless women with that middle-aged, golf-shirted, in-town-for-the yearly-sales-meeting set. I’m thinking he’s gonna dig up cool Seattle the way Rick Steves digs up cheap Europe.

Me? Locals tell me I have to try cheeseburgers from Dicks. Since the cheeseburger is one of my five favorite burgers, "I’m in!"

Meanwhile, my early MLS Cup preview on ESPN Soccernet is up. In it you’ll find Galaxy midfielder Chris Klein clobbering the league choice of holding a final on FieldTurf.

I didn’t have room in the piece to get into what Jason Kreis told me yesterday about playing on the fakey, so I’ll drop in here. He’s a little puzzled about how to manage the week’s prep for the plastic pitch.

"The exact version of FieldTurf they have in Seattle is different than what they have everywhere else," he said. So he thought about training at Rice-Eccles, where the team played for most of its first four seasons.

"But the turf is different there, so I wasn’t sure how much good it would really do," Kreis told me.

Best solution: they’ll just train on grass like usual, then get in light workouts on Friday and Saturday at Qwest.

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Steve, Dick’s is alright, but the best cheeseburgers in Seattle are at Red Mill. They have two locations. Definitely worth checking out.

by The King of Norway on Nov 18, 2009 6:49 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Redmill? Yuck!

Unless you like lettuce and tomatoes a whole lot, then you should avoid Red Mill. Dicks is where it’s at for a real, local burger (the Dicks Deluxe, in some circles, is known as a “gut-bomb”). Seattle has some pretty good pizza joints too, check out Pagaliacci or Zeeks if you get a chance… Oh, we also have good fish and stuff…

Regarding the pitch, Sounder fans have been debating this topic for quite some time. A soccer specific stadium is really the only solution that would solve the issue completely. Qwest was designed with the MLS and international soccer in mind, the sight lines are appropriate for soccer, the field is wider than most NFL stadiums, extra locker rooms, etc. Except for that darn playing surface, it’s just about perfect.

For a little history, the stadium was originally to have grass. The Hawks played their games at UW when the stadium was being built and liked the surface at Husky Stadium so much that they changed Qwest to have FieldTurf as well. Hence, the plastic pitch that we have today.

The general consensus is that Qwest is such a great venue that we should work something out with the pitch and keep the stadium (as opposed to building a new one). Field Turf works great for the weather here, and word is that Qwest has some of the best in the country. Thing is, it’s still FieldTurf.

We’d love to have grass, but then you have the football lines and the torn up field in the fall. Not good. Seems that the eventual solution will be to replace the turf with grass and deal with it in the fall. There are lamps and watering machines and drainage systems that can let them grow grass wherever they want. For the moment, it’s more of a political issue. Not so smart to be the new guy in town and start throwing around demands.

The easiest solution for Seattle would be for the MLS to require grass fields. Somewhere in the legal paperwork, if the MLS were to make that decree, Qwest would be forced to change to grass.

by kopp on Nov 19, 2009 11:51 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Dick's

Ahh, after living in Seattle for a few years back in the 90’s it is nice to see Dick’s getting some props. While there are better burgers, Dick’s is an institution and in today’s culture that counts for a lot. I talked with a number of RSL players yesterday and none are thrilled about playing on fake grass. I hope that the biggest match of the MLS season will never have to be played on it again.

by denz on Nov 18, 2009 7:22 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

better fake grass

Than a sand pit ala Houston

Or what grass would be like at Qwest during both football seasons, with rain, and a roof that blocks the sun.

I am not a Supporter
I am not a Fan
I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart

by Sounder At Heart on Nov 18, 2009 7:42 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

grass is best

I understand the point about the Seahawks.
But let’s not equate FieldTurf being in the same league as grass. I’ve had the opportunity to play on all sorts of surfaces around Seattle—grass, FieldTurf (good and bad), astroturf, dirt (how I hate those dirt fields)—and I’ll admit that my old bones don’t feel sore in the morning after playing on FieldTurf like they do when playing on dirt or astroturf, I really doubt FieldTurf shortens careers. But let me tell you, when you get the chance to play on grass around here, even mediocre grass, what a treat! It is simply easier to control the ball, and to get under it and make the ball do what you want it to do, on grass. There’s a reason folks like Beckham and Ljungberg dislike the FieldTurf: grass plain and simply is the best surface for soccer.

by PeterJH on Nov 18, 2009 11:45 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

As long as Seattle is at Qwest

They’ll be on turf. Grass just won’t work there. The only alternative could be the grass that’s blended with artificial blades that is used throughout England and I believe Colorado used it when they were at Invesco. I remember it holding up well even when the Broncos began play. It would be worth exploring, but I don’t know if it would work.

Formerly ryebreadraz

by Ryan Rosenblatt on Nov 19, 2009 2:17 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I'm no grass expert, but...

Again, I don’t want to punch out of my weight class when it comes to turf knowledge, but I do know this: they grow grass and play on it in England. At Qwest, given that it’s a football stadium (American, I mean), grass probably isn’t the ideal option. I guess my question is about a soccer stadium in Seattle. Given the weather here, would grass work inside a venue used primarily for soccer. As I said, it works in England, where the winters seem to be as wet as here. (It’s a little different grass, of course … almost more like a thick moss than grass, but it works fine.)

by Steve Davis on Nov 19, 2009 9:37 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Grass could work in a different stadium

But would the Sounders really be better off cutting their attendance in half and playing out in Auburn?

Would the league really be better with only 20k at the Cup Final?

Next year the Sounders will have over 35k at every match watching soccer on a pitch that plays fairly and never has the lines from high school football (like PizzaHut and Crew), nor for the NFL (like Gillette). There is even a possibility they get to 39k if sales go well.

The orientation of the open ends would need to be different, it couldn’t be built on fill land (SoDo is fill not natural), it could never be used twice a week and in order to cost less than half billion would have to be at least 30 minutes from downtown.

I am not a Supporter
I am not a Fan
I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart

by Sounder At Heart on Nov 19, 2009 12:56 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Would the league really be better with only 20k at the Cup Final?

They’ve sat 27k (or less) in several finals, including the last one, so that’s not really a question worth raising.

"I'm just doing karate and trying to get females pregnant."

by Bald Pollack on Nov 19, 2009 3:14 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

That they would do it

Is assured.

Is it really better that way though?

I am not a Supporter
I am not a Fan
I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart

by Sounder At Heart on Nov 19, 2009 3:21 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I hear the Silverdome is open.

"I'm just doing karate and trying to get females pregnant."

by Bald Pollack on Nov 19, 2009 6:01 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I'm missing something

Maybe I’m not really replying to your points, but Emirates has no open ends and more of a roof than Qwest, and Safeco, right across the street from Qwest, has grass so I’m not sure how SoDo landfill plays into this.

I think the FieldTurf at Qwest has more to do with Holmgren falling in love with the flubber at Husky than anything.

by PeterJH on Nov 19, 2009 4:33 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

What the grounds crew at Qwest has said

is that they would not get enough sun during the dark months of the year

And SafeCos grass isn’t used in the fall, has a roof that covers it to prevent rain and the sport that uses it isn’t physically wearing on it.

I am not a Supporter
I am not a Fan
I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart

by Sounder At Heart on Nov 19, 2009 5:05 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Fake Grass

They have real grass across the street from you, grass grows up at the Seattle Center, heck Seattle is called the “Emerald City” because of all the green. I agree that the surface in Houston looked as bad as I have ever seen it, it was much better last fall when I made a trip down there.

No player really likes to play on the fake stuff, it shortens playing careers and increase injuries. We saw it at Rice Eccles for a couple years and that surface was considered a good turf, but there is really no such thing. I just found so much humor that Freddie was upset at football lines on pitches, but I bet if you surveyed players and gave them a choice between Turf or grass with pointyball marks, I bet it would be a 90% victory for grass.

by denz on Nov 18, 2009 10:00 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

boo turf.

hooray grass!!!

capital letters suck.

by soccerfreak on Nov 18, 2009 11:32 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Field Turf

Seriously, I’d rather play on field turf that most of the grass fields available around Seattle. Field Turf is softer in the summers and firmer in the winters than any natural field you’ll find. The combination of the rain and the heavy use—be it at 60 Acres or Qwest Field—make grass a poor surface for year round use in this climate.

Trust me, the Field Turf at quest has got to be on par, if not better, than stuff that’s gone into the Seattle city parks in the past few years. As a goalkeeper, that stuff is GREAT to play on. Totally predictable surface.

For me the bottom line is that if the ball is round and the surface is flat you can play soccer on it. Stop whining. A soccer specific surface is better than any piece of shit with football lines on it.

by JustinYNWA on Nov 19, 2009 11:41 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Really

Who when the big teams came in, did they make Seattle put in grass or did they play on the field turf? So my question remains that the biggest game of the MLS season should be played on grass, not turf. With all the technology available today, figuring out how to get a quality grass surface in Seattle shouldn’t be that big of a challenge. I mean we have stadiums that roll their surface in and out of the stadium so it gets sunlight.

I understand that when the stadium was build it was build for pointyball, and that turf is an advantage in pointyball. But the games are very different and if playing on field turf was acceptable then they would have it all over the UK, but they don’t.

It isn’t about the look of the pitch it is the proven fact that field turf causes injuries in soccer more so than grass. It shortened Eddie Pope’s playing career by a couple years, it has caused a number of injuries in Toronto and while the Seattle players are towing the company line, I bet none of them are truly happy to be playing on it.

by denz on Nov 19, 2009 11:58 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

After the games where they brought in real grass, I don’t think I heard a single player praising the pitch. The way that they bring in the grass is to lay a tarp over the turf, roll out sod, and let it grow for a week. They debated doing this for the MLS Cup Final, but decided that due to the time of year (the other times they’ve done this it was summer), that the field wouldn’t seed and would be virtually unplayable.

by kopp on Nov 19, 2009 12:34 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

When those same big clubs came to Seattle

and insisted on grass for the game, why did they practice during their regular seasons on Field Turf?

Seriously, almost every team in the top Euro leagues uses artificial surfaces where they spend a vast majority of their time. If Field Turf really led to more injuries (which NO study has proven for current versions, none, NOT ONE) then no English club would ever practice on it, and yet dozens do every day.

Evidence shows that current generations of artificial surfaces are as safe as grass, which is why you see it in Scandanavia’s top leagues. Evidence should determine the best surface, not passion. In Seattle the best surface for that stadium will always be the best FieldTurf ever made.

As for Qwest being built for American football, it wasn’t. Every single design point was made for both sports, equally, from day one.

I am not a Supporter
I am not a Fan
I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart

by Sounder At Heart on Nov 19, 2009 12:52 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs