From Bryce (@SourdoughSpam):
Bryce, I’m skeptical that it’ll happen. You all should know where I stand on this—and I’m sick of people getting lied to on it. It’s not hard to understand. Following the bouncing ball here …
• The price point for teams and stadiums has exploded. In 2002, Arthur Blank bought the Falcons for $545 million, and four new venues opened at prices in the $300 million to $500 million range. Two decades later, and the Commanders just sold for $6.05 billion, and the league’s two newest stadiums (SoFi in Inglewood and Allegiant in Las Vegas) are multibillion-dollar arenas.
• Because of those expenditures, in owners’ minds, 10 home dates and a few concerts every year won’t cut it from a revenue-generating standpoint. So they try to jam every event under the sun into those places. Swim meet? Sure. Tractor pull? Why not? Monster truck rally? Bring it on. Boxing match? Let’s go.
• And accommodating all those events has made it harder and harder for teams to maintain grass fields. It’s easier, cheaper and less time-consuming just to throw turf down and call it a day, hence artificial surfaces popping up even in outdoor stadiums and Sun-Belt cities such as Charlotte, N.C., and Nashville, Tenn.
To me, what Green Bay’s done gives you the smoking gun. The Packers invested big money in making a hybrid natural surface work in Northern Wisconsin—and it holds up better than almost any other surface in the NFL. The difference with the Packers, of course, is they don’t have an owner there to pocket the savings while profiting off non-football stadium events. Also worth looking at is what Real Madrid has done in their gutted, rebuilt stadium, which proves, again, that there are solutions so long as you’re willing to spend.
Unfortunately, to this point, NFL owners haven’t been willing to in order to give their players the very best playing conditions. Which is a shame.
