Someone commented that the upper deck restricted sunlight needed to grow the grass. For what it is worth.
Just becaaue it doesn't get as much "direct" sunlight, it still gets its fair share... mainly just loses the early morning and late evening hours as the sun starts to rise or fall in the sky... but it still gets plenty of hours of sunlight when the sun is high in the sky (late morning-noon time until mid afternoon). Can't really see this being a major factor. I'm no lawn expert though so I can't say for sure.
Compared to ASTRO-turf, grass has far fewer inuries. However, no one uses astroturf anymore. Fieldturf is said to actually prevent injuries that occur on astroturf and real grass. It's a much different animal than astroturf and if you have ever played on field turf, you'd agree. Reduces maintenance costs as well...
We could also not have numbers every five yards to cut costs but that is no fun. Tradition. It was tough to watch an Ohio State game this year with their new turf...just doesnt seem right.
LSU changed the turf again this year. It was installed before the season, and clearly, this variety didn't hold up worth a flip. I thought the variety they installed last season held up reasonably well. For whatever reason, the grass didn't seem to reseed itself. Once it came up, it never seemed to root back down. It may have been something to do with the length. It was cut extremely short this season, which normally plays to our favor due to our team speed. However, when you are playing on a bed of sand, that advantage is gone. I would like to see us plant two different types of grass on the practice fields where we can really put it to the test prior to installing in Tiger Stadium. Seems to me that would be a nice "test" for new turf.
It just takes one rainy football game to tear up the turf for the rest of the year. Resodding after the turf tears up doesn't take for a good while. There would be better footing with artificial turf with the increased risk of injuries. Since LSU seems to have a little better set of athletes than most opponents in Tiger stadium, I think artificial turf could accentuate their speed and athleticism.
I prefer real grass but I have to admit that I went to The ULL game last night and the new turf was awesome.
