PGE Gets Fieldturf

The Timbers announced a week or so ago that they will resurface the playing field at PGE Park with the same surface that just got put in on the UP practice field.

PGE is booked for a lot of football games and soccer matches in the fall (as many as three games a day), so I realize that real grass probably can't be maintained there, but I've never liked watching Soccer at PGE because of the excessive bounce and speed the existing NEXturf surface gave to the ball. It was more like watching pinball than 'Real soccer".

I remember the last time I watched the UP women play there (2005), and again watching the US women there this fall, we spent half the game waiting for the ball to come back down after the first bounce. The surface may have been part of the reason we played PSU at Merlo the last two years.

Watching the players practice on our field, it seems the FieldTurf behaves much more like real grass. The ball doesn't bounce and skid as much. The surface has been aproved by FIFA for international matches, so we might get a few more of those in town without having to truck in sod like they have in the past.

So when and if we play PSU there again, maybe the game will be more fun to watch. PGE Fieldturf story

Never been to a football match (of either kind) there, but that doesn't sound like much fun. It seems to be all right for baseball, though the field looks strange with the cutouts instead of a real infield. Guess I'll just HAVE to go all the way to Seattle every summer to watch baseball on grass