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Are we going back to natural grass in the near future?


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13 minutes ago, Bullneck said:

Pretty sure, yeah.

But there was actual alarm in the sports business about lead (I think it was) at the roots of the "grass" fibers. The people who raised a stink about the pellets are the same people who claim everything is carcinogenic.

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15 hours ago, Steamboat1874 said:

The problem (I think) is it is not painted but the actual turf is created in that color. The blades are actually orange, or supposed to be and that was as close is they could get in the process.

So if that is true find a new process or a new vendor.  

Or just fucking paint it.

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who cares if it's carcinogenic, I thought science proved all the players were going to die at 40 from CTE anyway

The real problem is that it's aesthetically unpleasing. To the degree anyone ever tells me anything, I swear that in 2008 we were told "we're getting rid of the shitty, clumpy grass and putting in New And Improved Fake Turf because it will let us use DKR for all sorts of things BESIDES UT football", and a) that doesn't seem to me like it's happened, and b) I don't care if the Pope will only do Mass on Field Turf, the only thing that matters for DKR is whether it's good for Texas football. 

You can't have an athletic department that churns out $250m in revenue and sends money back to the University proper and then turn around and act like we NEED to whore our DKR and you sure as shit can't do that and then not actually do it. It's the worst of both worlds.

Put the motherfucking grass back in

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22 hours ago, Nueces River Rat said:

No shit.  When my son was playing football, he and his team mates had to  empty their shoes of the pellets before they went into the locker room post game.  

I recall when they installed the first edition of this new style turf at our high school 10 years ago, for the balance of the season the stadium smelled like tire shop.  Never mind we had a wet fall that season which one would think would help get rid of the smell.  And when you went on to the surface on a typical sunny/hot day anytime of the year, you could smell it.

They replaced it last year  with a newer version which doesn't have as bad of a smell.    It also is supposed to be cooler and it appears from what I saw this past season, it has less black pellets.  

The hot as fuck during the summer and daytime and pellets in the ass crack beats a mudhole for us down in the swamp below Houston. That shit is a miracle. I've also played on the old style turf, and can confirm it's like playing football on a concrete basketball court. Wearing regular shoes playing football feels crazy.

Texas should just keep getting the latest and greatest artificial and tweaking it. After the nightmare of Texans and their patch together field I dont trust the real stuff.

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15 hours ago, Tex Pete said:

But there was actual alarm in the sports business about lead (I think it was) at the roots of the "grass" fibers. The people who raised a stink about the pellets are the same people who claim everything is carcinogenic.

If, and that's a big if,  I remember correctly a youth soccer team (girls?) raising a lawsuit over it.

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2 hours ago, Zavala said:

The hot as fuck during the summer and daytime and pellets in the ass crack beats a mudhole for us down in the swamp below Houston. That shit is a miracle. I've also played on the old style turf, and can confirm it's like playing football on a concrete basketball court. Wearing regular shoes playing football feels crazy.

Texas should just keep getting the latest and greatest artificial and tweaking it. After the nightmare of Texans and their patch together field I dont trust the real stuff.

I think NRG's issue was the fact they couldn't or they wouldn't keep the roof open 24/7 except during game days didn't allow the natural turf to breath or have some of the natural nutrients required like non treated rain water, sunlight, etc.   Arizona (Glendale) found the solution.  But then against Houston is humid as fuck where as Arizona people almost die when the humidity gets above 40%.  

Agree the old stuff was like playing on concrete.... I tell the kids these days if you want to get a feel how that crap felt, the next time you go to a mini golf, take a fall or trying sliding on it and that's how it felt.  I recall back in the day with baseball and teams who made the state baseball tourney at the Disch, it was hell to prepare for it because other than the Astrodome, there really wasn't any turf baseball fields back then and it was the same concrete with thin grass on it as the football fields were.  So some high school teams would try to find a college football stadium close by who might have the old crap turf or flat out practiced fielding grounders on concrete or asphalt to simulate the feel at the Disch.   Now with the bulk of the state baseball tourney being at Round Rock it's not an issue.  Plus a huge number of high schools have turf at their football stadiums now and a surprising number are going to it for their baseball stadiums fields too.  

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Unpopular opinion - If they're considering a change, I hope they don't make one. Grass is great when done right, no doubt. But any natural grass field is a water hog. We aren't exactly well endowed with water in Central Texas. Not to mention how expensive it is. That will be passed on to all of us in ticket prices, merch, etc. Save water, save money, keep the turf.

Do agree whoever does the paint needs their eyes checked though.

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3 hours ago, Zavala said:

The hot as fuck during the summer and daytime and pellets in the ass crack beats a mudhole for us down in the swamp below Houston. That shit is a miracle. I've also played on the old style turf, and can confirm it's like playing football on a concrete basketball court. Wearing regular shoes playing football feels crazy.

Texas should just keep getting the latest and greatest artificial and tweaking it. After the nightmare of Texans and their patch together field I dont trust the real stuff.

Amazing. Doesn't trust grass.

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I don't know the actual water volume required, but I think most artificial surfaces are typically cleaned with water. I also don't know too much about the technological advancements in natural surfaces, but it seems that durability issues could be improved by growing the turf through a perforated sheet matrix. My guess would be that artificial surfaces would maximize the advantage of having the strongest, fastest, most sudden guys. I agree with the bottom line of getting/keeping whatever the HFC prefers.

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1 hour ago, gmr548 said:

But any natural grass field is a water hog. We aren't exactly well endowed with water in Central Texas. Not to mention how expensive it is. That will be passed on to all of us in ticket prices, merch, etc. Save water, save money, keep the turf.


 

Unlimited supply of homeless piss in Waller Creek, though.

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Unpopular opinion - If they're considering a change, I hope they don't make one. Grass is great when done right, no doubt. But any natural grass field is a water hog. We aren't exactly well endowed with water in Central Texas. Not to mention how expensive it is. That will be passed on to all of us in ticket prices, merch, etc. Save water, save money, keep the turf.

Do agree whoever does the paint needs their eyes checked though.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk


Water hog if you use sprinklers. If you irrigate from below it saves a ton of evaporative water loss from the aerial irrigation. You use the pumped drainage system that clears the 3 or 6 inches an hour rainfall in reverse and pump your irrigation water and fertilizer in from below. No evaporative loss other than the natural loss from the grass leaves.
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14 minutes ago, MrPhlegm said:
2 hours ago, gmr548 said:
Unpopular opinion - If they're considering a change, I hope they don't make one. Grass is great when done right, no doubt. But any natural grass field is a water hog. We aren't exactly well endowed with water in Central Texas. Not to mention how expensive it is. That will be passed on to all of us in ticket prices, merch, etc. Save water, save money, keep the turf.

Do agree whoever does the paint needs their eyes checked though.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

 

Read more  

Water hog if you use sprinklers. If you irrigate from below it saves a ton of evaporative water loss from the aerial irrigation. You use the pumped drainage system that clears the 3 or 6 inches an hour rainfall in reverse and pump your irrigation water and fertilizer in from below. No evaporative loss other than the natural loss from the grass leaves.

Mr. Phlegm Hill, salesman of irrigation and irrigation accessories.

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4 hours ago, Nueces River Rat said:

I think NRG's issue was the fact they couldn't or they wouldn't keep the roof open 24/7 except during game days didn't allow the natural turf to breath or have some of the natural nutrients required like non treated rain water, sunlight, etc.   Arizona (Glendale) found the solution.  But then against Houston is humid as fuck where as Arizona people almost die when the humidity gets above 40%.  

Agree the old stuff was like playing on concrete.... I tell the kids these days if you want to get a feel how that crap felt, the next time you go to a mini golf, take a fall or trying sliding on it and that's how it felt.  I recall back in the day with baseball and teams who made the state baseball tourney at the Disch, it was hell to prepare for it because other than the Astrodome, there really wasn't any turf baseball fields back then and it was the same concrete with thin grass on it as the football fields were.  So some high school teams would try to find a college football stadium close by who might have the old crap turf or flat out practiced fielding grounders on concrete or asphalt to simulate the feel at the Disch.   Now with the bulk of the state baseball tourney being at Round Rock it's not an issue.  Plus a huge number of high schools have turf at their football stadiums now and a surprising number are going to it for their baseball stadiums fields too.  

Yup, Alief Taylor had the turf when I was in HS.

If they can pull it off, yeah, grass is probably superior. 

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On 2/8/2019 at 10:26 AM, Tex Pete said:

Well again, they seem to believe it is the shade of orange we should be using(not that I agree). All our orange is lighter than it was 15 years ago.

Is thus where we insert the picture showing the jerseys are still the exact same color they’ve been for decades?

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5 hours ago, sdm said:

Mr. Phlegm Hill, salesman of irrigation and irrigation accessories.

I'm guessing you're going with Hank Hill, but Prof Harold Hill works here too

"Ladies and gentlemen, either you are closing your eyes to a situation you do not wish to acknowledge, or you are not aware of the caliber of disaster indicated by the presence of field turf in your community!"

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2 hours ago, BadgerHorn said:

I'm guessing you're going with Hank Hill, but Prof Harold Hill works here too

"Ladies and gentlemen, either you are closing your eyes to a situation you do not wish to acknowledge, or you are not aware of the caliber of disaster indicated by the presence of field turf in your community!"

Yes, Hank it was.

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I sure hope we can back to some natural grass on the field.  Not a crazy unruly field, but a nicely trimmed well maintained field is always a nice surprise.  Really tired of the completely shaved field the other team likes to sport these days. Its abrasive and uncomfortable and..  Wait...what are we talking about?

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On 2/9/2019 at 2:44 PM, SwanderedTalent said:

I only ever played two-hand touch on the turf @ DKR (circa 1992-1994) but I recall thinking it was extremely, oddly springy. Much more padded than I expected. Probably no fun to get tackled on, at speed, but the difference in expectation vs reality was interesting

We used to play tackle at DKR in the mid 80s ... in shorts. It was open to anyone back then.

Yeah, we were stupid. Could barely walk for days ...

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18 hours ago, wood said:

We used to play tackle at DKR in the mid 80s ... in shorts. It was open to anyone back then.

Yeah, we were stupid. Could barely walk for days ...

All kinds of people used the field and track back in 79-83. I remember one time throwing the ball around under the lights while some goofy race walker was getting his miles in.  There was at least one pick up game going on, people throwing frisbees, all kinds of activity. The only time I saw anyone get chased off the field was when the band had to practice. One time I was running the stadium stairs in the NEZ during the day when some guy came out to make sure I was staying on the concrete.

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  • 2 years later...
4 hours ago, WBT said:

back to?

Yeah, I was wondering when we last had a grass baseball field. Thought I missed something. Billy Goat Hill, it is!

(I also think we have had an advantage over the years knowing how to play the ball on the turf at the Disch. At least the AstroTurf pre-Field Turf)

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5 hours ago, Tex Pete said:

Yeah, I was wondering when we last had a grass baseball field. Thought I missed something. Billy Goat Hill, it is!

(I also think we have had an advantage over the years knowing how to play the ball on the turf at the Disch. At least the AstroTurf pre-Field Turf)

That's irrelevant now days for the most part.

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43 minutes ago, Machinator said:

Without listening, my translation was, "I don't give a fuck, why do our fans get hung up on the stupidest shit?"

TCU has natural turf, and it adds to their home field advantage. I know Patterson watered the shit out of it when Baylor had fast teams. Wouldn't have surprised me to see him standing out there with the hose. 

With the new turf (not at UT, at some other colleges I've covered,) I've heard players complain about blowing those granules out of their noses days after the game. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

FCB

Spoiler

— Texas will have new field turf in DKR for the 2021 season, but that doesn’t mean a grass field is out of the question in the near future, sources tell Horns247.

It was time to replace the field turf in Royal-Memorial Stadium, because the current turf was installed in 2010. The shelf life of field turf is typically 10 years.

The timing wasn’t right to go to a grass field at this point because of all the construction going on in the south end, sources said.

But if Steve Sarkisian wants a grass field in the near future, it will be done, sources told Horns247.

Sarkisian has been asked about whether he’d prefer a grass field over field turf, and his concern about a grass field was wear and tear.

Sarkisian said because he likes the team to practice and do off-season workouts on the field inside the stadium, the concern would be keeping the grass field in optimal condition for game days.

The Texas coach noted that some of the top football stadiums, such as the Dallas Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium (which has also been the home of the Big 12 football title game), has field turf.

Texas' $200 million renovation of the south end of DKR is due to be completed in August - in time for the 2021 season.

 

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