Seeding the love for all grass MLS fields

It’s as predictable as water freezing below 32 degrees: anybody who gets a grass field, one laid expressly for soccer, believes they have the very best one.

Go ahead, check it out. Put your little fingers on the keyboard, do the Google dance and you’ll find plenty of quotes from a variety of cities and sources that all say about the same thing: we’ve got the best soccer field in the country.

Obviously, that can’t always be true.

It was once true that not all MLS grass fields were equal.

That’s because too many of them doubled as American football fields. Not only did they get beat up by the big behemoths of the gridiron game, but groundskeepers were reluctant to over-seed with winter grass (to prep for spring soccer games). That would not have been ideal for football games in the fall, so the net result was MLS games in April and May played frequently on dormant grass that was decidedly un-plush and un-lovely.

So, there truly were a couple of parks who could claim to have the “best” fields. 

Then, glory be, we began seeding America with proper, pro soccer stadiums. Part and parcel were luxurious fields created with MLS soccer in mind. They are watched over by groundskeepers who dote on every blade. And, except for cases where concerts and other money-making events kill the deal temporarily, the stadiums are all about equal. The fields are true and smooth.

Still, they all like to trumpet their grounds as superior to the rest, and a compliant media usually pushes the story along. To wit, we now see that Toronto FC is calling its new field the “Cadillac of grass pitches.”

Forget for a minute that Cadillac is gold-standard cool the way the Sony Walkman was gold-standard cool – in the 80s. So, they need to update their analogies. Otherwise, can we all just get past this business of calling this pitch or that one the best?

One may be slightly faster or just a wee bit less slick at night than another one. But the bottom line is that everyone likes a smooth, grass field. (And, yes, I know there remains a reasonable argument for keeping turf in certain facilities, so let’s just save that debate for another day – one where I’m at the dentist and won’t have to take part.)

The new grass at BMO gets its first official test on April 15 as Nowak’s Naught Newbies from Philadelphia comes calling on Exhibition Place.