I had never heard that about Lambeau or of a similar product existing. I was on the sideline there in pre-game for a Packers-Bears game back in the early-90s and it was just frozen tundra. Some of the hybrid Bermuda surfaces go dormant late in the season (that's why they look yellow on TV) but I haven't noticed that in recent years. Davis could have a similar surface to the Rose Bowl, almost like a putting green.

The radiant heat is enough to ban those artificial surfaces from the planet. The get very hard with age, the infill needs to be groomed and eventually replaced, the injury rates are significantly higher, and obviously the harder the field the greater the risk for concussions. Plus they smell bad. Nothing better than a fresh-cut grass field. What's an extra $75k per year in water costs?!

, @Pacifico2 I had not heard of hybrid turf before but I looked it up and it is a thing. It’s real grass with about 5% reinforcing fibers sewn in after. In my area we use Bermuda grass for fields, typically Tifway, Latitude, or Celebration. We overseed with annual rye so you still have the lateral strength of the Bermuda but the winter rye grows though for color. When artificial fields came into vogue 25 years ago the argument was lower maintenance and better for the environment. As for maintenance, you trade mowing and striping for raking, blowing, and sewing repairs. For the environment, they didn’t really mention that an artificial fields have a finite number of reps before they must be replaced in whole. I think UCDHS is on its 3rd turf. So water and fertilizer/pest control vs a giant non-recyclable pile of plastic every few years. In severe weather natural turf has the advantage in the heat, artificial turf in late season rain. The artificial turf companies don’t tell you that the pellets get everywhere and may be carcinogenic or that vomit, Gatorade etc are difficult to clean up. I prefer natural turf but I understand the optics of water conservation are a weighty factor in CA.

That is really interesting about that surface, pretty cool! I feel smarter today thanks to you guys.

Screw the optics and conservation, bring back the grass man!!! :rofl:

Have you seen the robotic field stripers they have now? They operate off of GPS and can stripe and number a football field in about 60-90 minutes. I hate robots and believe they will eventually kill us all, but this deal is pretty cool.

We have grass all over campus, though less than 30 years ago.

I’m a fan of natural grass too. They have it at NC State. When Doeren became head coach, he wanted synthetic turf and was told “no way”. This was due to the turfgrass program here and also to some extent being an agricultural school.

I have not seen robotic striping machines but sounds cool. I will say there is more than meets the eye to maintaining an excellent grass field in terms of both biology and equipment. And I think @88Aggie that may be up the decider between natural and artificial turf at the high school level at least. Grass is a living thing and has to be responded to in real time. While artificial requires special know how to repair, it can wait for a vendor visit. My high school’s grass was definitely not laser leveled and had gopher holes about the depth of a broken ankle. We probably don’t have good data on what’s safest because so much of the research has been funded by the turf companies. But if I were to hypothesize, artificial turf may be better than a poorly maintained grass field but not as good as a professionally maintained one. @movielover I would vote for real grass here but unlikely to be considered until the turf is worn out. I tend to think it’s worth the water investment when it’s grass people use rather than just look at, especially if reclaimed or irrigation water is available.

They use the striping robot at the college my daughter plays for. It is most helpful on the practice field for setting up drill fields or boxes. The coach programs and walks away.