One thing it seemed that everyone agreed on last season was that the playing surface at Starfire Sports Stadium was terrible — even Premier Development League teams complained.
Well, that has been taken care of in time for Wednesday’s U.S. Open Cup match against Los Angeles, as a new FieldTurf surface awaited the Sounders as they trained today.
“The new turf field is good,” coach Sigi Schmid said after training. “It’s probably the best turf field now in the area. It definitely slows the ball down. It’s not nearly as fast as Qwest is, so from that standpoint it’s going to be a little bit different for us too.”
“It feels fine,” rookie Michael Seamon said. “There were some hard bounces, but for the most part it played pretty well.”
Been on it a couple times now; it’s nice and thick, holds the ball up really well. I’d compare it to the new turf at Sparks Stadium in Puyallup, if any of you have been there.
× Flag comment
I’m at Starfire all the time, but almost never the stadium. And when I had talked to Hanauer about that horrible Starfire turf at the start of the season, he had sorta given me the impression that it wasn’t a very high priority. However, that old turf had struck me as below the level of professional games, and certainly below the level of a professional team that tries to run itself as professionally as do the Sounders.
So I was both surprised and happy to see it today.
And, as you can see, just visually it makes the place look a dozen times better.
× Flag comment