The grass is always greener when it’s … um … not grass (17 August 2007).
After encountering a few durability problems with the existing natural grass football field, Chelsea decided to install artificial turf from ProGrass. Unfortunately, there have been delays in the installation process, and the field may not be ready for the first JV home football game this Thursday. (From afar, the turf looks like it is in place, but it is only laying on the ground. That is why you can see wrinkles in the turf in some of the pictures.)
Personal note: I strongly prefer to see football played on natural grass; from that perspective, the new turf isn’t the Best News Ever. But sadly, for some reason, the grass wasn’t holding up anymore, and turf was the obvious solution.
Scheduling note: if the turf isn’t ready by Thursday, the JV game will be moved to Ypsilanti. (Thanks to the rain we’ve been getting, this is becoming quite likely.) And if the turf isn’t ready for the varsity home opener a week from Friday … well, there would be some severely unhappy people over on Freer Road (and probably at ProGrass, too).
There’s something about getting dirt on a uniform that just looks right. I suppose I’m already old-fashioned, but the purist in me can’t quite let go of natural grass. There’s just something manly about picking clods of sod out of your facemask, getting dirt ground into your shins from other people’s cleats, even finding grass stains on your undies occasionally. It may be easier to maintain, but turf is just a bit too clinical for me. But there you are.
Well, as Michigan’s turf adventures demonstrated, sometimes it’s practically unavoidable. And unfortunately, given the budget differences between Michigan football and Chelsea football, it probably wasn’t realistic for Chelsea to experiment until it found a grass field that wouldn’t deteriorate like the previous field did the last few seasons.
Despite all that, I think football should be played on grass, so I think this is a step down. But oh well. We can just hope that someday they’ll switch back.