Arrowhead Turf Takes Hit
Last week the NFL Players Association released its 2010 NFL Players Playing Surfaces Opinion Survey. They polled 1,619 active NFL players from all 32 teams on their thoughts about the fields they play on.
The field at Arrowhead Stadium did not receive high marks. The players ranked it No. 13 among the 18 grass playing fields
That’s the same ranking it received in 2008 and in 2006 it ranked No. 14.
Opinion is different among Chiefs players, as 84.5 percent of the players ranked the Arrowhead field good to excellent.
The best grass playing field as far as the players are concerned is the field at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. The worst grass field in the league was at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh.
The best artificial turf field was at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, while the players voted the worst fake field as that of the Metrodome in Minneapolis.
Here’s how the players ranked the fields, both grass and artificial:
GRASS ARTIFICIAL TURF
| Team | Stadium |
# |
Team | Stadium |
| Arizona | Univ. of Phoenix |
1 |
Indianapolis | Lucas Oil |
| Tampa Bay | Raymond James |
2 |
New York | Meadowlands |
| San Diego | Qualcomm |
3 |
New Orleans | Superdome |
| Carolina | Bank of America |
4 |
Seattle | Qwest Field |
| Green Bay | Lambeau Field |
5 |
Dallas | Cowboys |
| Miami | Sun Life |
6 |
Atlanta | Georgia Dome |
| Houston | Reliant |
7 |
New England | Gillette |
| Jacksonville | Everbank Field |
8 |
Detroit | Ford Field |
| Denver | Invesco Field |
9 |
Baltimore | M&T Bank |
| Tennessee | LP Field |
10 |
St. Louis | Jones Dome |
| Washington | FedEx Field |
11 |
Cincinnati | Paul Brown |
| San Francisco | Candlestick |
12 |
Minnesota | Metrodome |
| Chiefs | Arrowhead |
13 |
Buffalo | Ralph Wilson |
| Philadelphia | Lincoln Field |
14 |
||
| Pittsburgh | Heinz Field |
15 |
||
| Cleveland | Browns |
16 |
||
| Chicago | Soldier Field |
17 |
||
| Oakland | Oak. Coliseum |
18 |
It would be interesting to know how many of the top fields have more than one team using them or how much they get used outside of the games on Sunday. Also, I wonder if the type of grass makes a huge difference. I notice that a lot of the top ones are warmer climate and a lot of the bottom ones (including KC) are a little bit colder. GB and OAK kind of screw things up, but otherwise there is a clear trend by climate.
Since the Wizards aren’t playing at Arrowhead any more the field should stay in better shape, I can remember after some saturday soccer games in past years that on sunday Arrowhead looked very rough.
The fact that there is MUCH more activity on Arrowhead’s turf is most likely the primary reason. I understand wanting to maximize the facility’s revenue potential BUT if your gonna do that you really should consider artificial turf. Its coma a very long way in quality over th years. It should be embarrassing that GREEN BAY has better grass than we do.
True but, while not really understanding what it takes to even grow yard grass, the Chiefs have suffered mightily since G. Toma left as grounds keeper. As for Green Bay, been up there, they paint their houses green and yellow, not muted shades but bright Packers colors. It is all GB has and they do it well, very well.
This is disappointing. Our players deserve the best.
With the advances in Field Turf it’s a no brainer to install it at Arrowhead with all the college games and concerts they are having. Plus the climate is another reason. It would also make us the only AFC West team with it which be another advantage. With Pioli/Haley emphasizing team speed, I just have to believe this will be in the works soon.
Hey guys- did you notice that 6 of the top 7 grass fields are warm weather sites? I don’t know the answer on Green Bay,s field except I do know that they have heating coils buried under the turf, perhaps that had some thing to do with it and I doubt there is much activity on Lambeau field except Packers football. I would be opposed to artificial turf at Arrowhead because of injuries to Chiefs players. We had artifical turf for years and I for one was glad to see it go.
Not installing field turf is just being cheap. The field at Arrowhead looks like @##%% halfway through the season.
The newer ‘Fieldturf’ that is available today and is going into stadiums now is heads and shoulders above the simple ‘carpet’ astroturf of years ago. Its a lot easier on players joints running and it does a lot better job absorbing the impact of hitting the ground when being tackled. The Chiefs need to spend some money that they have been saving by being way below the cap the last few years and put down some turf.