Rogers Centre: Green Grass and High Tides Forever

[The Talented Allen Ripley]

The Blue Jays are looking to install a natural grass field inside Rogers Centre by 2018.
 

Lyons, one of Canada’s top turfgrass experts, is leading an ambitious experiment by the Toronto Blue Jays to see what it would take to grow real grass inside Rogers Centre in time for the 2018 season. It’s a tall order, and probably one of the most watched sports field transformation projects in North America.

 

Lyons says the biggest challenge will go to the engineers who need to retrofit a stadium that was never designed to grow grass. Among their hurdles will be figuring out how to deal with the extra humidity created by millions of blades of grass, how to give it enough light, how to lower the Roger Centre’s concrete floor and get it to drain properly.
 
Growing grass indoors is easy enough, Lyons said – they can already do that inside Guelph’s space-age plant labs, where scientists manipulate the light, humidity and water fed to grass sprouts in big, white-walled metal boxes that look like walk-in freezers.
 
Using these multi-million-dollar growth chambers, they can mimic the exact conditions of the Rogers Centre. Those experiments will help researchers decide which blend of grasses are the best fit for the Blue Jays, and provide data to the engineers who need to build the stadium infrastructure to keep the plants alive.
 
Lyons is confident it can be done, and done on time, but admits the logistics of retrofitting Rogers Centre in the off-season will be tough. He knows success isn’t certain, and plenty of indoor stadiums have failed at it before.
 
“Hopefully, we can learn from their mistakes. The Blue Jays want to do this right,” he said.

 
 

 

[steeplechase3k]

The light problem isn't hard to fix. It's just not cheap.  Lots on European soccer stadiums use grow lights to keep the fields growing all winter. 
 

 

[Smiling Joe Hesketh]

Nice Outlaws reference. I approve.

 

[Orel Miraculous]

Nice.  Contrary to its reputation, the Rogers Centre is a perfectly fine place to watch a ballgame (and a fantastic place to watch a ballgame when the roof is open). At this point, I'd prefer  the Jays stay in the dome for the next 30 years than see another Safeco/Citi Field/Comerica built in Toronto.  Those parks are all nice but ultimately boring and forgettable.  I've been hoping the Jays can start sniffing the playoffs for a while now, if for no other reason than to get more mid-summer scenes like this:
 

 
 

 

[Rasputin]

Nice.  Contrary to its reputation, the Rogers Centre is a perfectly fine place to watch a ballgame (and a fantastic place to watch a ballgame when the roof is open). At this point, I'd prefer  the Jays stay in the dome for the next 30 years than see another Safeco/Citi Field/Comerica built in Toronto.  Those parks are all nice but ultimately boring and forgettable.  I've been hoping the Jays can start sniffing the playoffs for a while now, if for no other reason than to get more mid-summer scenes like this:
 

 
 

This is insane to me. When I went, it was one of the most sterile places to watch a game ever.

 

[moondog80]

Best bargain in baseball: hotel room with a field view in Toronto.  Cost me a bit less than $500 (including parking) for a Sox game last summer.  4 decent tickets and a hotel room somewhere else would cost as about as much, plus the savings from being able to just send for a pizza and bring in whatever food you want.  We couldn't see deep RF because it was directly below us, but great view of everything else including the scoreboard, you can crack the windows open and hear everything, and really the coolest part was after the game, just staying in the room and watching them close the stadium down.  There was an afternoon game the next day so they had a crew that apparently worked straight through the next game -- we checked out at like 4 AM to get an early start on the drive home and there were still people cleaning the stands.  I've been to about 20 stadiums and that was hands down the coolest experience I've had.

 

[HriniakPosterChild]

This is insane to me. When I went, it was one of the most sterile places to watch a game ever.

It's Canada, eh?

 

[jimc]

I have curmudgeonly objections to the Rogers Centre. Constant too-loud music and too many flashing video boards. When the roof is closed, forget about it. Last year they didn't open the roof once until I think late May despite the weather being fine.
 
Sections 101-108 and 135-143 are my favorite. Looking back from just over the outfield wall from underneath the big video board and the speakers, so you don't get that "inside a pinball machine" feeling. The new SRO section under the hotel is a nice and unusual view of the game.

 

[curly2]

It would be nice if while they're waiting for grass they would have a full dirt infield like the Rays do, but they got new turf this year and still didn't do it.

 

[HriniakPosterChild]

It would be nice if while they're waiting for grass they would have a full dirt infield like the Rays do, but they got new turf this year and still didn't do it.

The Rays don't have to share their field with a football team. The Jays do.

Sliding pits around the bases might make the conversions quicker and cheaper.

(That's just a guess, but most of the old concrete Albert Speer era turf stadiums were multi sport. )

 

[Red(s)HawksFan]

The Rays don't have to share their field with a football team. The Jays do.

Sliding pits around the bases might make the conversions quicker and cheaper.

(That's just a guess, but most of the old concrete Albert Speer era turf stadiums were multi sport. )

 
I think you are right. Which got me thinking...were there ever any outdoor MLB stadiums that used turf and weren't multi-use?  Only one that I can think of is Royals/Kauffman Stadium, and I only assume it wasn't multi-use since Arrowhead is right next door.  I think all the other turf fields, indoors or outdoors, were multi-use and had minimal dirt areas for easier conversion between sports.

 

[curly2]

The Rays don't have to share their field with a football team. The Jays do.

Sliding pits around the bases might make the conversions quicker and cheaper.

(That's just a guess, but most of the old concrete Albert Speer era turf stadiums were multi sport. )

 
I'm sure it's quicker and cheaper, but if I owned the team, I would think it would be worth the effort for the five times a year or so the Argos play during the baseball season to save the wear and tear on Jose Reyes and Josh Donaldson by playing them on a dirt infield instead of a turf infield.

 

[John Marzano Olympic Hero]

 
I think you are right. Which got me thinking...were there ever any outdoor MLB stadiums that used turf and weren't multi-use?  Only one that I can think of is Royals/Kauffman Stadium, and I only assume it wasn't multi-use since Arrowhead is right next door.  I think all the other turf fields, indoors or outdoors, were multi-use and had minimal dirt areas for easier conversion between sports.

After the football Cards left town, Busch Stadium was baseball only and all turf.

 

[Infield Infidel]

 
I'm sure it's quicker and cheaper, but if I owned the team, I would think it would be worth the effort for the five times a year or so the Argos play during the baseball season to save the wear and tear on Jose Reyes and Josh Donaldson by playing them on a dirt infield instead of a turf infield.

 
They are kicking out the Argos after 2017, and the Argos just signed a deal with BMO to move there. http://www.bluebirdbanter.com/2015/3/23/8279359/happy-news-argos-to-sign-lease-with-bmo

 

[Red(s)HawksFan]

After the football Cards left town, Busch Stadium was baseball only and all turf.

 
Wonder if they left it as turf in anticipation of bringing another team in (like, say, Jim Orthwein's Patriots), which they final did in 1995.  However, once the TWA Dome (now Edward Jones Dome) was finished and the Rams moved there, they converted Busch to grass.  So the intent was still multi-use even if it wasn't used that way for a period.

 

[Papelbon's Poutine]

Didn't the Vet stay turf after the Eagles left?

 

[Red(s)HawksFan]

Didn't the Vet stay turf after the Eagles left?

 
For the one season the Phils played there before moving out themselves?  Probably.

 

[Papelbon's Poutine]

For some reason I thought it was longer than that. Never mind, carry on. 

 

[curly2]

Not grass, but tomorrow the Sox will be playing in a place that looks like an actual baseball diamond.


It's a huge improvement.