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It's long been an eyesore to fans in the stands and to those watching at home on TV.

And now that they fear it might cost them the opportunity to land a premium free agent, the Toronto Blue Jays say they are seriously considering rolling up the Astroturf and installing a grass field at Rogers Centre.

The surprising revelation came from team president and CEO Paul Beeston in response to a question from a season-ticket holder during Monday's state of the franchise event at Rogers Centre.

It's long been held that a grass field could be not be sustained at Rogers Centre for the duration of a baseball season. Not so said Beeston.

"Grass can grow here. We've checked it out," he told a scum of reporters moments after completing an hour-long Q&A session for fans along with general manager Alex Anthopoulos and manager John Farrell. "The real issue that we have is we have other events (at Rogers Centre), not just the Argos, but the other events here."

Beeston added that there are fertilizers available strong enough to sustain a grass field for a baseball season, provided the field stays in place for the duration.

"If you made the decision that you were going to make it a baseball-only stadium and you were going to put grass down, the question being can you do it, the answer would be yes," said Beeston. "Theoretically and practically. It can be done."

The biggest current obstacle standing between the Blue Jays and a grass field appears to be the Toronto Argonauts of the CFL, a Rogers Centre tenant for nine dates in 2011 between the start of the baseball season and the conclusion of the World Series.

The Argonauts current lease with the Rogers Centre is set to expire at the end of 2012, the same year their current five-year deal with the Buffalo Bills of the NFL ends.

There is talk that Rogers Centre owner, Rogers Communications, and the Bills may extend their partnership beyond 2012, but as long as future Bills games aren't held during the baseball season it should pose no threat to a grass field for the baseball season.

Rogers Centre is also scheduled to serve as the venue for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Pan American Games in July, 2015.

Earlier in the evening Anthopoulos acknowledged that this off-season the Jays had lost out on two free agents with whom they had offered more money and more years to. Later in his scrum with reporters, Anthopoulos refused to divulge the league the respective players will ply their trade in next summer, but he did concede the Blue Jays current playing surface is a non-starter for some free agents.

but he did concede the Blue Jays current playing surface is a non-starter for some free agents.

We can make Dolly and ask Siri but we cannot grow grass in the shade.

At the Rogers Centre, and just about every other big stadium, the grass won’t survive.

None of them work. Not the rugged Celebration Bermudagrass, the classic Kentucky bluegrass, or the resilient seashore paspalum.

The ballpark’s walls are too high, the sun can’t shine in.

Why then, did the Blue Jays team president and CEO Paul Beeston say the Rogers Centre could sustain plant life, exciting fans yearning for a lush green field and players tired of rug burn?

“Theoretically and practically, it can be done,” he told season ticket holders on Monday.

As it turns out, Beeston is kind of right. You can provide lights for the grass (to compensate for the shade) or invest in either a modular field or rail system (to move it away from the shade).

What you can’t do is simply grow the stuff.

Apparently, shade-grown grass is the athletic groundskeeper’s Holy Grail.

“This is the kind of thing I always tell the students on the first day,” said John Rogers, turf science professor at Michigan State University. “There’s no perfect grass for all situations. If there was I wouldn’t have a job.”

Since Astro Turf’s 1966 debut in the Houston Astrodome, real grass fell out of vogue, unable to withstand the traffic of a multi-purpose facility like the Rogers Centre, one just as likely to host an Argos game or Disney On Ice as it is a Jays game.

In the past decade, however, there has been a grass revival. Today, the Jays are just one of two teams in Major League Baseball, along with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, that continue to use, in the words of New York Times columnist Dave Anderson, a “chemist’s carpet.”

Earlier this week in Florida, the Miami Marlins installed a grass field for their ballpark, which has a retractable roof.

The retractable roof will remain open until opening day in order to get plenty of sun.

“They’re using a Bermuda called ‘Celebration,’ ” said George Toma, a veteran groundskeeper described as the world’s best.

“It takes the shade better than some of the other Bermudas.”

Toma, who has just turned 83, is readying the artificial turf at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis where he’s painting, brushing and putting in the crumb rubber for Sunday’s Super Bowl.

BobbyBoy wrote:They should expand BMO field and host things like the CFL,and the monster trucks. The ACC can host the ufc. The only thing is they can't have real grass because of the height of the wall causing a shadow... they would need some kind of special grass. Like the one they have in Miami's new stadium, but they have left the roof open to soak up all the sun, and here in Canada we don't have that warm temperature to sustain it. Unless they can do something to modify the sun or something in the roof. Technology these days, you never know what they can do!

http://www.thestar.com/sports/football/cfl/argos/article/1128253--perkins-argos-turfed-if-toronto-blue-jays-put-grass-in-rogers-centre?bn=1
...
He and Beeston had a recent breakfast and Beeston told him about the grass plans, which could involve more or less anchoring the first- and third-baseline sections of seats that swing around into a football configuration. There are major capital costs involved for an almost 23-year-old building, including installing drainage under the floor where none presently exists.

WpgPage wrote:http://www.drunkjaysfans.com/2012/02/perkins-jays-are-serious-about-grass.html