Sunday, April 11, 2004
TURF WARS
In a follow up to my post on the Blue Jay's being the last team playing on AstroTurf, the company that makes AstroTurf and tried unsuccessfully to make a knock-off of FieldTurf has filed for bankruptcy. This might not be news to some of you as it actually happened a few months ago causing the Twins to go with FieldTurf, rather than SRI's knock-off of FieldTurf, AstroPlay, which the Twins organization originally chose because it cost them less.
Now my question is this: If the Skydome has a matienance problem with their turf or they need to have it replaced, who is going to do that now? The AstroTurf in the Dome was installed in 1989 and generally AstroTurf has a life expectancy of about 10 years. As far as I know, and I looked, the turf at the Dome has never been replaced and even if it was it would only have about 4 1/2 years left. Either way, this indicates that the Astroturf at the Skydome is a beaten up surface with little life left in it. If something should happen, like a tear, the best we might hope for is a Sportsco employee running on to the field with a stapler and some green construction paper.
Obviously, the reason the Jays haven't installed FieldTurf system themselves is because Sportsco owns the Dome and the Jays don't want to invest in something that they ultimately wouldn't own. I wouldn't either, it would be like paying to have my friend's bike fixed because he lets me ride it once in a while. I'd rather just put the money towards buying my own bike or, better yet, for some cheap French whores.
I think the only soloution to this dilema is that either the Jays have to buy the Skydome or they have to build themselves a new stadium. I'd be for the former, as I think the Skydome is actually a decent facility and public financing for a new stadium would be hard, if not impossible, to come by.
