Merlo Pitch

Not sure if anyone's been on campus in the last few days, but the Merlo pitch is no more. Merlo Field is currently bare dirt, awaiting new sod.

Cool After the game last night, I saw a pile of what looked like dirt over in the corner where the players come in. They must have scraped it today, because at 9:00 last night it still looked like the grass was there.

It's neat they started. I wonder what that means for Spring ball, though...

Need pics.

This is excellent news. The pitch has been pretty beat-up over the last couple of seasons. Hopefully they will bring in quality grass that will last another couple of decades!

They're going to replant grass? I thought they were trying to bring their playing surface up to New Mexico standards.

Doesn't look like they're not planning to sell any of the sod for souvenirs?



I saw a Post-Superbowl story where small cuts of turf was being sold at riduculous prices.

GO PILOTS!!!

IF you are willing to pay ridiculous prices, you can get Garrett Smith to personally cut out a piece of the new one for you.

Better grass.

I think people paid those prices because they were expecting a pound of a different kind of grass

A blade of grass would be more than enough for my scrapbook!

Here's what Merlo looked like on Saturday. Old sod is up, new dirt/sand mix is placed. There's a few rolls on the Pitch which I'm sure will get shaved - probably after the new sprinklersystem is in place.



It already looks better than New Mexico's pitch.

eProf wrote:They're going to replant grass? I thought they were trying to bring their playing surface up to New Mexico standards.

Not so far from the truth...



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKusJngqOf0

It also looks like the Texas A&M field in December 2005 before it was painted green -- except that the TAMU field was hardpan.

The luscious looking Merlo dirt looks way better than the old school astro turf, asphalt or sand/rubber blend fields I grew up playing on...

Yes! Even with a makeover...she's beautiful all the way to her core...dirt and all!

Are we still going to have the flattest playing field of college futbol? I hope so...

I know practically nothing about sod-laying, but I am surprised that it would take root and be ready to be stressed by spring soccer. Or, do they play elsewhere? My high school team had a new sod field made, and I seem to remember that it was something like a year from being laid until normal use.

I think sod can be ready pretty quickly. I remember when they did World Cup matches on sod laid over artificial surfaces. There were a lot of worries that the sod would be unstable, but it didn't turn out to be a problem even though it had only been in for a short time.

Spring games can be played on Pru Pitch or on the recently flattened and re-vamped practice field... I very much doubt they'll be playing on Merlo any time soon.

SoreKnees wrote:I think sod can be ready pretty quickly. I remember when they did World Cup matches on sod laid over artificial surfaces. There were a lot of worries that the sod would be unstable, but it didn't turn out to be a problem even though it had only been in for a short time.

The sod for the World Cup games was only expected to last for a couple of weeks, so it's apples and oranges.

They won't sod. They will most likely plant grass.

Sod is too expensive and Turf people will tell you it doesn't yield as good a pitch. But they played on the practice fields by the sesaon ticket holder's picnic, and that grass was planted in May.

So it might be possible to play on Merlo's pitch for the u23 game if they planted soon and it germinated (weather), but The field woud get trashed a little. The good thing is that they could still have 3 1/2 months to get the field back in shape.

It seems fairly certain the early spring games will be on other fields.

I'm sure they've thought this out, and don't want to lose money by not playing on Merlo Pitch. Does anyone know if we will still have the flattest playing field of college soccer when this is all done?

I'm also sure they have thought it out so that they will have all fall games in the stadium. This is like anything else on our site - we don't pretend to necessarily know, we just like to shoot the breeze and offer opinions, and ask questions.

Now that I reflect on it, I am pretty sure we planted seeds for our new field here rather than laying sod. I would guess it takes a little longer to be ready for serious use from seed, but, as Geezer said, you get a better and longer-lasting finished product, and cheaper.

onetouchfutbol wrote: Does anyone know if we will still have the flattest playing field of college soccer when this is all done?

Last I heard, they will use a laser to make sure it's flat.

It will be flat.

Personally I hope it has a big fat crown on it, just like all those football fields we got to play on in high school. It's so much more exciting if you are on the wing and look across the field and can only see the torso of the guy you are trying to pass it too.

Not to mention you get the x-treme factor of an accurate pass on the floor getting ramped up in the air like that snowboarding tomato character and your perfectly simple pass turns into a test of reflex and skill!

I want our men and women prepared for the worst possible scenario, not spoiled by perfect conditions

DaTruRochin wrote:
I want our men and women prepared for the worst possible scenario, not spoiled by perfect conditions

Those TBD games on the Spring schedule?

They are at New Mexico.