Weather and field conditions for the Bears’ Thanksgiving game with the Lions on Thursday morning are pre-determined: The game will be played on artificial turf within the climate-controlled confines of Ford Field, a domed stadium in downtown Detroit.
Back in Chicago, where complaints about the Soldier Field grass have at times rivaled bellyaching about quarterback play, the state of the sod appears to be improving along with the team that plays on it. Through six home games this season, the Bears have a 5-1 record on a Kentucky bluegrass surface that has been devoid of the much-ballyhooed problems of the past.
Six years ago, after the Bears lost to the Houston Texans during a rain-drenched Sunday in November, kicker Robbie Gould said the turf conditions at Soldier Field were the worst of his career. Two years later, with the playing surface still under fire from players and images of the churned-up grass rocketing through the sports world — Mayor Rahm Emanuel weighed in, saying the city and the Chicago Park District, which owns the stadium, will “work on it.”
The crescendo of complaints in 2014 led to a change. Soldier Field management switched sod providers, turning to a New Jersey turf farm that specializes in providing grass for professional sports teams.
“Overnight, there were fewer complaints,” said Soldier Field general manager Tim LeFevour.
Soldier Field wanted to support Illinois sod farmers, LeFevour said, but the turf’s higher clay content led to incidents of slippage for players, especially in wet weather. The new sod, grown at Tuckahoe Turf Farms in Hammonton, N.J., has less clay and more sand.
Asked about the changes to the playing surface at Soldier Field, the Bears released a statement saying the team is committed to providing “the best possible natural grass playing surface and the 2018 season is no different. Player safety for all Bears home games always has been and always will be our driving force.”
Sod schedule
Once labeled one of the worst fields in the National Football League (Soldier Field ranked third-to-last among natural grass fields during a 2010 NFL Players Association survey and No. 28 overall in a Sports Illustrated ranking in 2015), the spotlight on the quality (or lack thereof) of the Bears’ home turf has dimmed. Instead the focus this month was on Mexico City, where a scheduled game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Rams was moved to Los Angeles because of poor field conditions at Azteca Stadium.
The first-place Bears have two more regular-season contests still on the docket: a nationally televised Sunday night affair against the Rams on Dec. 9 and a Dec. 16 game against the Green Bay Packers. If the Bears win the division, Soldier Field will play host to a playoff game for the first time since Jan. 23, 2011, when Chicago fell to the Packers in the NFC championship game. LeFevour said the decreased sunlight of December means the grass grows slower, but management uses a heating system below the field to “fool the root system” and stimulate growth. Crews will only have to mow the grass about once a week late in the season, compared with about once a day during the warmer months.
Cold autumn and winter weather in Chicago provides a challenge for groundskeepers and other events like concerts at the storied lakefront venue also take their toll on the playing surface.
“They’re making the best of a challenging situation and continuing to figure it out,” said Jerad Minnick, a natural grass consultant who works with NFL teams. The reality of the climate in Chicago, he said, is just “not great for grass growing” and crews in northern cities “essentially have to play God, if you will” to create conditions that will allow the grass to survive.
LeFevour said crews resodded the entire field after a Nov. 3 rugby tripleheader. The field also received new sod between the hash marks during mid-September. In addition to Bears games and the rugby matches, Soldier Field has played host to an Ed Sheeran concert, a University of Illinois football game and a high school football game. The Park District contracts with SMG, the managing agent for Soldier Field, which is responsible for maintaining the playing field. SMG works with the Bears to determine the resod and maintenance schedule based on the event calendar and the team’s schedule.
Troubled turf of the past
The Bears have played on grass at Soldier Field since 1988, when the stadium’s artificial surface was replaced. The artificial turf was used for 17 seasons after the Bears moved their games from Wrigley Field in 1971.
In the years since, the grass surface has long been a source of angst and complaints from players, owners and fans. In 1988, the Bears flirted with playing a preseason game at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Wis., after sod at Soldier Field continually came loose during an exhibition game against the Dolphins. In 1994, after hosting World Cup soccer, July concerts by Pink Floyd and the Grateful Dead and later three football games during a four-day period, Bears President Michael McCaskey called the field “perfectly awful.” And in 2011, Bears and SMG formed a “field committee” after an open practice for fans was canceled because the sod hadn’t been watered sufficiently.
Given those issues, it wasn’t surprising when Sports Illustrated, using the players’ survey, fresher opinions from players and details from groundskeepers, ranked the Soldier Field playing surface 28th in the NFL three years ago. The Arizona Cardinals’ home field was rated the top field, followed by the venues in Tampa and outside Miami. The highest rated cold-weather field was the natural grass turf in Denver, coming in at No. 7.
About half of NFL teams play on natural grass, with stadiums in northern cities using Kentucky bluegrass like Soldier Field and southern sites using Bermuda grass. In Green Bay, the Packers use a surface that is a hybrid combination of grass and synthetic fibers called GrassMaster. The hybrid system is popular among many European soccer clubs.
Grass making a comeback
NFL players have said overwhelmingly they prefer playing on natural grass, believing it reduces the risk of injury, according to the players association poll. In the 2010 players’ survey, 89 percent of all NFL players said they believed artificial playing fields caused more soreness, fatigue and would lead to shortened careers compared to playing on grass. Of the Bears who took the poll that year, 54 percent rated the Soldier Field surface “poor,” with only eight players rating it as excellent or good. In the comments section of that poll, several players lobbied for cold weather cities like Chicago and Pittsburgh to switch to artificial turf.
In the eight years since the survey was taken, there have been an array of advancements in grass-growing technology and breeding, Minnick, the NFL consultant, said. Scientists have been able to create more cold-resistant grass and varieties that are better able to handle high traffic and the wear and tear of professional sporting events. Other technological innovations, such as heat lamps for fields, pull-out trays that allow grass fields more access to natural sunlight and the use of heat-trapping tarps have also helped sports teams improve the quality and durability of their grass fields, he said.
“What’s good for the player is good for the grass,” Minnick said. Natural grass, Minnick argues, absorbs more shock and has lower levels of energy rebound than artificial surface.
Part of the impetus for the renewed focus on better quality playing surfaces has been the growing popularity of soccer in the United States and fans’ interest in European clubs and leagues, Minnick said. Top level soccer is almost exclusively played on natural grass, so when touring European clubs visit U.S. stadiums, or when venues like Soldier Field host international competitions, teams expect high-quality grass surfaces. Asked if concerns about concussions and player injuries were also contributing to the field changes, Minnick said, “I would hope it’s playing a bigger role, but I don’t know.”
Some teams and colleges that used artificial turf have switched back to grass recently, including the Baltimore Ravens and the University of Mississippi. The Raiders’ future home in Las Vegas will have a grass field, while the new stadium being built in Los Angeles is slated to have an artificial surface.
At Soldier Field, LeFevour said his focus is on providing the best playing surface possible for the Bears’ two remaining home games. The Bears’ game in Detroit on Thursday, the first of four more road games, is among three remaining division matchups that will go a long way toward determining whether the Soldier Field turf will again be put to the test during the January postseason.
poconnell@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @pmocwriter
