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It has been requested by players for years now…
and FIFA just proved it can be done.
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I have a friend who is involved with Reliant’s stadium in Houston and I asked about this, and his response was “in a dome, if you can’t slide the field out of the stadium like Arizona/Vegas, how do you keep the grass alive?” The answer is, they’re constantly running UV grow lights. And to make it a permanent feature, they would have to do this everyday.
Now obviously NFL teams can afford the upfront costs of making the change and the electrical bill, but you also have to factor in environmental factors PLUS, in Dallas and Houston, the effect on Texas’s energy grid. Large swathes of cities are regularly throttled during the hot summer months for 10-14 hours per day, and while I doubt the stadiums would have to face that, it only means that consumption loss will trickle down and the little people will end up paying. Again.
And that’s without bringing up the water it would take to keep it alive. According to AI: A standard NFL field is about 57,600 square feet. To keep natural grass healthy, it requires roughly 0.5 to 1 inch of water per week. Inside a climate-controlled dome with zero natural rainfall, that equates to roughly 35,000 to 40,000 gallons of water per irrigation cycle.
Finally, we come to the real reason the owners fight against grass so ardently: because it limits the stadium’s ability to make money on non-football days. Again, according to AI:
If a stadium installs permanent grass indoors, the floor becomes incredibly fragile. You cannot host a massive, 80,000-person Taylor Swift concert, a monster truck rally, or a corporate convention on top of living grass without completely killing it—even with protective plastic flooring. The heavy staging crushes the root zones and blocks the vital grow lights for days.
To bypass this, stadiums like the Cardinals and Raiders built the grass on a massive, 9,500-ton motorized tray that rolls completely outside the stadium into the natural sunlight when games aren’t being played. This allows the indoor arena floor to be concrete, ready to host a concert the very next night.
Retrofitting an existing dome like AT&T Stadium or NRG Stadium with a rolling tray is structurally impossible because they are surrounded by existing highways, parking structures, and development.
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The grass program for the World Cup is managed by the turf management program at Michigan State. Seems like Sheila and the Lions should be making a call.
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both turfs each have their pro’s and cons and always have. I don’t have the data showing “Do NFL players get injured more on Artificial Turf verses Natural Grass?”
so I can’t say one is worse than the other. and IF one was proven the better, what if any changes have to be made?
I am sure that is correct that the owners want to have synthetic surfaces to allow to concerts or other revenue generating events.
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Quite a good deal for the owners… they get the public to pay for at least a portion of the stadium to keep a team from moving, and then they keep the profits.
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And the public gets the benefits of all the revenue a sports franchise brings to their city… It’s not a one way street, these teams generate hundreds of millions for local businesses and tax revenue for the city and state.
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While there would be some initial elevated costs, this could be a good solution for a solar grid. The parking lot space could be used to put in an elevated solar farm that would provide a sort of carport effect. When the sun is shining, solar power energizes the grow lights. I am not saying the grid would 100% cover the energy needs, but it would put a dent into bill without fully utilizing energy capacity of their area.
Now greater minds than mine would need to verify the feasibility, but this is an application where localized solar could be a material part of the solution. I will, naturally, defer to my engineering friends that do this for a living.
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We all know these mom & pop NFL franchises can’t afford to take care of grass year round.
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I say it should be the Hybrid turf and grass.
The all grass fields, even well maintained get torn up really bad by the end of the year.
packers and eagles both use the hybrid, because it gets so cold in the winter, all grass can’t survive the full football season.
Tennessee titans new field is hybrid. And i thought the Bills were too.
Philly ranks consistently in the top 5 in the NFL for playing surface.
Where is our resident grass expert, is his name Turfguy? Doesn’t come up for me.
A classic case of both things being true at once.
Glad you chimed in with the flip side because yes there is a ton of benefit the society receives
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Incredible post.
Post of the year IMO
My solution , Solar Panels strictly feeding the grow lights and watering system for energy.
Calvin Johnson can help teams set this up, he knows all about the hydroponics grow systems.
And as for water , cmon man we have cloned human AI models speaking to me solving my problems…. They can recycle the rainwater and filter it so it’s beneficial for the grass.
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@Cynodon is the guy I think you are referring to here.
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Interesting.
How do you explain this then?
Texas: The state has over 140 data centers under development, with major hubs concentrated in the Dallas-Fort Worth and San Antonio areas, and massive hyperscale projects situated in rural communities like Sulphur Springs.
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Same as anywhere else, payoffs, etc…
fwiw, there is a @Turfguy.
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Not currently.
I tried to search that name and here is the only active user that starts with “Tur”….
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Yeah, I did the same thing.
There was a Turfguy whose business is grass and he chimed in on this topic in the past.
But it appears the account is deleted.
So the NFL could make this happen.
Step 1 would to make this mandatory. Then as they build fields they build them in a fashion that grass could be slide in and out so they can use the facility for multiple events.
I do not fathom why this is a problem.
You can then use rain to water the fields.
If these soccer punters can make it happen the NFL can make it happen.
I must add that the field here in Glendale is often slick and affects the game in a negative way. I have no idea why but it’s been an issue in multiple college football National Championship games and some Cardinal games….