Natural Grass For The NFL?

The staging of the FIFA World Cup at stadiums in the US demanded that all the venues be natural grass; FIFA rules do not allow for artificial turf.  So, stadiums in places like Seattle WA and East Rutherford NJ had to be “resurfaced” for those FIFA contests there.  That accommodation has created a debate.

• NFL players vastly prefer grass fields to artificial turf.  One poll had the players favoring real grass by more than three-to-one.  [Aside:  Richie Allen also disliked artificial turf and said that if a horse can’t eat it, he doesn’t want to play on it.]
• About half of the NFL stadium venues are natural grass.  Players have taken the resurfacing of fields for FIFA as a reason to call again for natural grass fields for NFL games.
• George Kittle was in attendance for the Spain/Argentina final game at Met Life Field and posted this on social media after the game:

“Grass looks great at MetLife! Can we keep it that way @NFL?? Would appreciate it thanks.”

At least some owners are opposed to natural grass fields – – and some of their objections have a kernel of logic at the core:

• Stadiums with roofs make maintenance of natural grass difficult.
• When the stadium is also used by other teams – – collegiate or high school – – those natural grass fields can become threadbare quickly.
• Some stadiums are located in geographical areas where natural grass is dormant for a significant portion of the NFL season – – think Foxboro or Chicago.

There is also a monetary basis for team and stadium owners’ reluctance here.  Some of the stadiums receive significant a significant revenue stream from outdoor concerts at various times of the year.  Some of them occur during the NFL season and – evidently – concert goers exert even more wear and tear on a natural grass surface than two NFL teams playing a game on a weekend.  Team and/or stadium owners do not want to have to re-sod fields too often; NFL teams want to play on surfaces where the sod has taken root with the soil below and does not come up in chunks during a game; teams and/or stadium owners do not want to forego that juicy concert revenue.  Hence the sticking point…

As is always the case, eventually, this matter should be negotiable.  We are nowhere near that stage yet; currently, each side is making its case in public for or against such a change.  So long as either side is issuing statements about the virtue of its position, the time has not come for a negotiated settlement.

This issue is one that is ripe for settlement; it all comes down to money.  The players say there are fewer injuries on grass; the owners say the injury data does not support that claim; blah! blah! blah! …  That sort of argument just keeps folks busy while the real calculus is being developed in camera.  Eventually, this will come down to basic arithmetic:

• The players get a fixed percentage of the NFL national revenue as player salary cap determinations.  This is not exact, but for the sake of argument here, assume the split is 50/50.
• So, if the owners are to incur an added cost to resurface and then to maintain grass fields everywhere, would the players accept a split of national revenues where they get 49.7% instead of 50%?
• How about 49.8%?

If there is a number on that percentage scale that becomes agreeable to both sides, this contretemps can dry up and blow away.  If not, it could become one of the laundry list of issues to be decided in the next CBA negotiations.  For the record, the current CBA between the NFL and the NFLPA runs through the end of the 2030 NFL season; neither side has an opt-out possibility, but the CBA can be re-opened by mutual consent.

So, if the players are willing to take a smaller cut of revenues as the determining factor for their salary cap and the owners believe that increased revenue for them will cover the costs associated with grass fields, the sides can re-open the CBA, agree to this issue and then re-close the CBA until 2031.  But so long as there is public positioning and posturing about the issue, nothing substantive is going on.

Finally, this from General George S. Patton:

“A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed at some indefinite time in the future.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………