According to the players’ filing with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario in Toronto, World Cup organizers are violating Section 1 of Canada’s human rights code, which states that “every person has a right to equal treatment with respect to services, goods and facilities, without discrimination.”I tweeted the local experts here at CU a question about costs of replacing turf with grass. Here is how they responded:
The filing seeks an order requiring that the tournament, scheduled to begin June 6, be played on natural grass fields. It also proposes possible resolutions that include installing grass fields on top of artificial ones and even relocating games to stadiums with grass surfaces.
@RogerPielkeJr depends what the subsurface of the artificial field was and what the desired design (native, USGA, etc) for the grass field
— CU Sports Turf (@CUBuffsTurf) October 27, 2014
@RogerPielkeJr could be anywhere from $200,000-$1,000,000+ depending on bells and whistles (irrigation, drainage, sub surface heat, etc)
— CU Sports Turf (@CUBuffsTurf) October 27, 2014
FIFA has $1,432 million dollars in reserve. Even at the upper end of costs, say $1 million per field to replace or build temporary grass field, the cost is but a rounding error in FIFA's full coffers.As far as whether temporary grass is better than turf, I'll defer to Clint Dempsey, speaking ahead of a 2013 hexagonal match with Panama (emphasis added):
“I'd rather play on real grass over turf than to play on turf. The ball rolls good. We felt fine yesterday playing on it; we'll get another chance to play on it today. They'll water the field and the ball will be moving quickly – which is important – and rolling true. The only thing you might notice is that when it bounces it doesn't bounce as much on this surface. But both teams will be able to play good soccer.”For its part FIFA says:
“We play on artificial turf, and there’s no Plan B,”FIFA is known for taking indefensible positions. Add this to the list.
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