The Toronto city council voted unanimously to approve the placement of grass at BMO Field in a vote held on Wednesday.
The decision means there will be one less MLS team playing on artificial turf in 2010, with Toronto FC joining the New York Red Bulls as teams set to make the move to grass next season.
What do you think of this news? Excited to see how Toronto FC will look playing on grass next year? Wishing it hadn't taken so long? Praying for the day when every MLS team plays on grass?
Share your thoughts below.
The Argos can’t play there without MAJOR renovations. The CFL field is 150 yards long. The COO of MLSE said that the Argos would have to pay the city at least $30 million dollars to remove one of the stands, and the Argos don’t have that kind of money. That stadium will stay soccer specific for a very long time.
modibo,
different stadiums. Have you ever seen the place? how exactly would they line a football field? it needs to be at LEAST 130 yards, and BMO pitch is 115×85.
Wonderful news. Turf just changes the way the game is played.
TFC now has soccer down to its roots.
Great job by TFC fans, and DeRo to keep the pressure on.
Soccer on turf is a joke.
If Garber would stop giving expansion bids to turf cities, we’d be down to one.
Next year, NE and Seattle, who won’t do anything anytime soon.
Then back to 3 (Vancouver) and possibly 4 (Portland) in 2010. Way to go Don.
The Argonauts will have fun tearing that up.
Glad Toronto made the change.
I had a chance to go to Red Bull Arena last week to pick out my seats. That place is going to be amazing…
Thank you, aristotle.
After following the revs to watch them play at BMO this summer I haven’t been able to force myself back to gillete, that stadium just sucks the energy out of soccer matches.
SG:
Did you ever hear the saying: “Beggars can’t be choosers.”? Did you really want MLS to turn down Toronto and Seattle because of artificial surface? If you did then I think you might be confused as to who has no clue. I think MLS is now in a situation where they can and should make the decision to make grass a requirement to join the league. The league is going to expand itself out of existence if it doesn’t take a breather from expansion soon. Now is the time to toughen the requirements. No football lines and no artificial surface! Maybe even throw in playing in urban areas as a requirement.
I thought Evony was a porn game. Grass? cool.
Grass ONLY. MLS has no clue
Hopefully the quality on the field improves and that hot chick in the background keeps coming out to games.
Ah ….. Isn’t Lincoln Financial Field grass.
And as for Kraft he absolutely must sell that team. The match with the Sounders was a complete joke. Montero scores the goal of the year maybe of the decade in MLS and there’s football, lacrosse, rugby lines all over the field.
Great news! Now Toronto has the whole package.
Am I the only one wondering why Ives says in this article that there will be ONE less team on grass in MLS next year? For that to be true a team has to be switching to turf or is it that Philadelphia will temporarily be on turf?
Dudinho:
New England’s stadium was built with soccer in mind so it’s different than any other NFL stadium that MLS has used. It still sucks though, just like the Revolution who are the most painful team in the MLS to watch. No offense to any of the 28 New England fans but the Revolution are just so boring. Also, Toronto is not an NFL stadium, it is soccer specific. Where did you get that idea?
TFC have had a number of quality players turn us down because of the turf.
JeffM – we couldn’t have grass from the beginning. It wasn’t an option.
RSL has grass my man..their orgional stadium when they first came to mls yea..but not rio tino
NE, Seattle will be the only ones next year(philly will play on turf for about the first quarter of their year until their stadium is ready , and that will have grass once completed)..2011 could be a different story
What about Real Salt Lake? Don’t they have turf?
about time.
jloome, every test of the “piped in” noise at Qwest has proven that accusation wrong.
Get a roof at your home pitch and get back to me. Get a roof that was designed by an accustics engineer and you’d actually have a parallel.
This was stupid. It should have had grass from the beginning and they wouldn’t have had to sepnd the renovation expenses.
That’s great news – the turf at BMO was not-very-good even by turf standards. They’re really doing things right in Toronto.
Kraft is el cheapo and would never bother building a SSS for the Revs. I hope he sells for the sake of the league
Why would Seattle be better with a smaller stadium in the suburbs?
——–
Toronto’s isn’t in the suburbs, it’s in the CNE grounds.
As for why you’d need a smaller stadium, perhaps you guys could then manage atmosphere without piping it in through the sound system.
Why can’t Seattle have grass for at least part of the year, a la the 1996-99 MetroStars? Seems a shame for such a first-class organization. There’s gotta be a way.
Why would Seattle be better with a smaller stadium in the suburbs?
Fantastic news. A very smart decision by MLSE to pursue a grass field in earnest.
What’s more, this would never have happened if not for the strong support of the club by Toronto-area fans from day one. Well done indeed!
Now we just need to convince Seattle and New England to build their own stadiums or lay down grass. (paging Robert Kraft)
Grass, right on…
“WERE GETTING GRASS
WERE GETTING GRRR-AAA-SSSS
IT WENT TO COUNCILL
AND IT WAS PASS”
Great – I think the league should not allow any turf in any SSS and they should make the owners have a plan, with a time line, for getting out of football stadiums. Turf plays too fast and changes the game too much. I hate watching soccer on turf
this is what they traded Edu for, grass.
*snicker*
in all seriousness this is an awesome step forward
Good, one less excuse for the TFC players they better make the playoffs next year because they are going to need a miracle to get in this year. (Arrrrrrrrrrr!)
The problem with PGE is that the field is well below street level in a city that gets a steady drizzle seven to eight months of the year (although summer is the dry season). Plus, they will be sharing it with Portland State University football in the fall. Some serious drainage issues would have to be resolved to go to grass in that stadium.
This is great news for TFC players and supporters, as well as the rest of the league.
Does anyone know the story behind Portland’s stadium upgrades? I know PGE Park has turf currently, but will the renovations include a new playing surface?
@ Henry
nope. THANK GOD!
Love the move to grass, it’s better for the game.
I thought the Dynamo also played on turf.
Are Toronto and New England the last two teams playing in NFL Stadiums? man it was like yestersay when it was almost exclusively NFL stadia in this leagu
YYYEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!! Great News!
Bravo Toronto.
Wow, with our crazy city and council, I am delighted to say it passed 29-0.
So now we are down to one horrendous eye sore for next year, maybe 2 (Houston’s stadium has football lines at this time of the year?)
ETJ,
beginning circa 2010, there will only be two teams that remain playing in turf. that said, neither will be moving away from turf anytime soon.
new england revolution – gillette stadium
seattle sounders – qwest field
This is such good news.
Seattle won’t be changing anytime soon, and I am ok with it as long as the football lines stay off the field. From some of the grass fields I have seen the turf may not be the worst thing.
I think it will be down to NE and Seattle. If Vancouver has a SSS I am guessing it will be grass. If they play at BC place to start it will be turf.
For next season the following teams will play on artificial turf:
New England
Seattle
Can anyone give me a list of the teams that still play on artificial turf?
This is BY FAR the best news I’ve heard all day.
Good for TFC. I am sure that they are practically giddy about the news up in TO.
Now if Seattle and the future Portland and Vancouver teams could follow…