BMO Field groundskeepers ready the pitch for February soccer Globe_Sports
Last year it was 9 C when Toronto hosted the Colorado Rapids on Feb. 27 at the same stage of the competition.
After a 2018 season full of complaints over the BMO Field playing surface, Toronto laid new sod in November . It also upgraded the drainage and heating system. Plus the club, which has a variety of covers for the playing surface, added to its supply of grow-lights.Story continues below advertisementBMO Field already has underground heating, meaning snow should not be a factor Tuesday.
“The heat’s on,” said Heggie, named Sports Turf Canada’s sports turf manager of the year in 2015. “But what we don’t want to do is have the heat so hot that the plant think it’s July, because obviously it would be very unnatural for the plant … It’s kind of like standing in a hot tub … but minus-19 from the waist up.”“I’m trying to convince it that it’s not the time of year that it is,” Heggie said of his grass. “And it’s very difficult because grass is growing under evolution.
Right now, Heggie is trying to convince the grass that it is May not frozen February. That’s because there are still some cold nights in May which the plant has to fight off. If you get the plant to think it’s June or July, it can’t fight back in cold conditions because it doesn’t expect them. That’s also one of the reasons his crew has to be judicious with its use of grow-lights. “We didn’t want to have lush grass during the polar vortex,” he explained.“I’m happy. This is where we thought it would be … A little sand’s kicking up here or there but It’s holding together very well for my opinion,” he said.“It’s not the best pitch. It’s not in the greatest condition,” he said. “But it is what it is.
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