Revs Get New Turf at Gillette
- Updated: September 11, 2017
Less than four months after it was replaced, a new artificial surface will be installed at Gillette Stadium while the Revolution embark on back-to-back road matches.
Installation of the new surface began shortly after the Revolution’s 1-0 win over Montreal on Saturday. The change was made after the previous surface did not meet the organization’s standards, according to reports.
Some reports indicated that some players on the New England Patriots said the former surface was especially soft.
The Revolution will play their first match on the new surface on Sept. 23 when they host Toronto FC.
Gillette Stadium, which opened in 2002 with a natural grass surface, switched to artificial turf following the 2006 MLS season.
According to a 2006 Boston Globe report, Revolution owner/operator Jonathan Kraft said the grass surface was difficult to maintain.
“We knew having a very busy, multipurpose stadium, in the Northeast, would make it difficult to keep a natural grass surface in place,” said Kraft at the time. “We spent a lot of time, money, and energy researching a system to do this, and we developed a system under that field, and spent millions of dollars on it.
“But unfortunately, the amount of sunlight the field gets after August isn’t enough, because the stadium is tall. So the grass doesn’t have a chance to recover after being used aggressively in April straight through January. No matter how good the system is underneath it, no one perfected a way to replace Mother Nature unless you go to an artificial surface. We haven’t wanted to do that historically.”
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