It looks bad for the possibility to use the Big O

[Guest speedmonk42]

quote:Originally posted by BrennanFan

if there is no deep blanket of snow, and there are a few heaters placed around the grounds, and it's not a lot colder than -10, the game could and should be played at Saputo.

Maybe they can throw a bubble up over the pitch and fire up some heaters to un-freeze the grass the week prior to the match. like Pilt said, where there's a will theres a way.

I have an idea.

Instead of invading Afganistan, lets take over a carribean island. Make it the winter CCL location for all teams.

This is more plausible than thawing a couple of acres of ground in February in Montreal.

[hamiltonfan]

game should be played at saputo. There has to be some sort of way to make a work. putting a buble over the field for a week or so prior to gameday sounds like it might work. time to add some seats for the game...

no way in hell should it be played in toronto. This is montreal's team.

[Trillium]

Tecnical solution...

1. If the field is sand based ( which I assume it is ) you take a cut in the grass and six inches down lay in pipe just like you do in an arena that uses a sand base.

2. The piping is then linked to a compressor and warmed brine flows to keep the pitch heated.

If i am not mistaken the field has a parking garage below it ? Do we know the heat transfer that occurs from below to the pitch ?

If the parking garage does rest totally below the playing surface, I doubt the febuarary freeze is a full four feet down ... there may not even be four feet of sand / earth up from the cement roof of the parking garage.

But i still think it should be played in Ft. Lauderdale.. every quebecker in florida would be there, and its only a 24 hour white knuckle drive from Montreal.

[CanadianSoccerFan]

Is this pitch frozen? February 13th in St. Petersburg Russia

[BrennanFan]

quote:Originally posted by CanadianSoccerFan

Is this pitch frozen? February 13th in St. Petersburg Russia

average high for st. petersburg russia in feb is -4. avg low is -10.

montreal's is -4 and -13 for february.

[Guest speedmonk42]

Look, you guys can post as many links to bad weather games as you like.

If they are playing on it, it is not frozen. Yet, it means nothing.

I don't recall anything from the construction pictures or being at the field several times that hints at an underground parking lot under the field. Is there one? And if there is, it is likely to make it worse not better. Unless building managers in Montreal heat underground parking lots with no insulation. It would be like an icy bridge, colder than the surrounding ground under the right circumstances.

[Guest speedmonk42]

Oh, and if you actually want the field to be grass, as opposed to dead grass, you have to heat the field from the beginning of winter to the game.

That might make Greenpeace forget about Exxon.

Heated fields are used to get a minor extension of the season at incredible cost.

The Denver Broncos do this and it is just to prevent frost, not thaw an entire field. They have to tarp the entire field at night, and untarp it every day for the light.

Where is this game going to by played.

[Cyrus]

quote:Originally posted by speedmonk42

Where is this game going to by played.

I see a few possible options. Skydome, is of course the front runner, but there are other options. Personally, I wouldn't mind a road trip to a nearby US city -- Foxboro or Giants Stadium might be possibilities. This is about four weeks after the Super Bowl, and four weeks before MLS kicks off, so scheduling shouldn't be an issue. A worse case is a far away site -- Vancouver or Florida.

The absolute worst case is that we pull a Belize and play both legs in Mexico or Puerto Rico etc. I dread the hell out of that. But I would try to road trip to both games to soak up some sun in between matches.

[Daniel]

quote:Originally posted by speedmonk42Where is this game going to by played.

Olympic Stadium. They just have to figure out how to do it.

[Grizzly]

It has to be played in Olympic stadium. There is no other good option. If we play any hispanic team in the US it will be an away game for us. The only way they are going to get enough fans to justify the big expense of playing in Foxboro or Giants stadium would be if they think they can fill the place with Mexicans. Rogers Centre would be pretty expensive as well considering it would have to be configured for the game and there probably would not be a very big crowd. The ironic thing is the only team still in the competition we could possibly play in the US and not have it an away game as far as the crowd would be the Houston Dynamos. If they can not find a way to hold it in Olympic Stadium I suspect they will have it in a medium sized stadium in Florida that is not very expensive to rent. I think there are enough guys involved with the Impact with sufficient connections to make sure that a way is found to play it in Olympic stadium.

[VPjr]

IF the match had to be played at Skydome, I'd be there and I'm sure there would be a fair number of Toronto soccer fans who would want to come check out the match and support a fellow Canadian team. Not sure how many dyed in the wool TFC fans would show up but I'm sure more than a few would turn up.

I truly hope that some solution is found to allow your team to play at the Big O. That's where it belongs. I'm often in Montreal around that time for work so if the game is played indoors, I'll try to make it. it will be nice to get a mid-winter soccer fix in Canada, especially to watch a team I've come to really enjoy watching

[Tuscan]

As Speedmonk said, it is ridiculously expensive to heat natural grass fields. My dad is a mechanical engineer, and when I asked his opinion on the idea, he just laughed. I don't know how some of the European clubs do it, but they must be paying through the nose as there is no cheap way to heat an entire field.

What exactly needs to happen for Montreal to be able to use the Big O? Everyone keeps talking about some contract with some company, and I fail to see how, aside from the fact the decaying roof is a safety factor, any of this is an issue to the Impact. It is a professional organization, and I'm sure they will find a way to make it happen, just hopefully soon enough for my tickets to Montreal to stay below $700...

[the biologist]

quote:Originally posted by Tuscan

What exactly needs to happen for Montreal to be able to use the Big O? Everyone keeps talking about some contract with some company, and I fail to see how, aside from the fact the decaying roof is a safety factor, any of this is an issue to the Impact. It is a professional organization, and I'm sure they will find a way to make it happen, just hopefully soon enough for my tickets to Montreal to stay below $700...

Well, you just mentioned it yourself. It's been 10 YEARS the Big O's closed for "safety factors" from December 1st to April 1st. Don't forget that in Quebec, we LOVE doing reports. For the Montreal Fire Department, as long as there's no official reason for the roof collapse, nobody can use the playing surface. The question is: WHY after 10 years we're still waiting for the report to be produced by Birdair, the company responsible for this roof ? Flexibility and common sense would be to allow to clean the roof hours before the game so there's no possibility for the roof to collapse during the game... but no. Like the title states: "No report, no games at the Big O".

quote:Originally posted by Grizzly

I think there are enough guys involved with the Impact with sufficient connections to make sure that a way is found to play it in Olympic stadium.

That's why I still feel optimistic nevertheless. [8D]

[Richard]

^ Don't think there is a practical alternative to the Big O anywhere in Canada so if the Impact are denied access they will likely be forced to play outside the country which would be tragic.

[Massive Attack]

quote:Originally posted by Richard

^ Don't think there is a practical alternative to the Big O anywhere in Canada so if the Impact are denied access they will likely be forced to play outside the country which would be tragic.

SkyDome? Hell, Glasgow Rangers played Dinamo Zagreb there in 2005, on the fake pitch as well....

[RS]

quote:Originally posted by VPjr

IF the match had to be played at Skydome, I'd be there and I'm sure there would be a fair number of Toronto soccer fans who would want to come check out the match and support a fellow Canadian team. Not sure how many dyed in the wool TFC fans would show up but I'm sure more than a few would turn up.

[Grizzly]

I am sure a few hundred of Toronto fans would come out and a few hundred Montreal fans would make the trip. Add in the ethnic group of the team we play and your looking at a few thousand fans. The Impact would lose a massive amount of money with the fee to rent Skydome and convert it to soccer. Swanguard would make more sense than the Skydome even if it would be very expensive for Montreal fans to get to.

[loyola]

What kind of weather do we have in early March in MTL? Between -5 and -10?

Find a way to keep Stade Molson free of snow and defrost the field a few days prior to the game and keep it like that.

I know it's a near impossible scenario but that would be the best way to have an advantage over the central americans or Mexicans.

[the biologist]

Molson Stadium's gonna be in renovation I think. The phase II of the renovation project (adding 5,000 seats for a total of 25,000) is supposed to be completed by the start of the 2009 CFL season. The season usually kicks off in late june with two preseason games (one at home) scheduled the weeks before.

So there's a chance the stadium won't be usable come QF time. Anyone knows something about this ?

Anyway, nobody from the Impact staff has even mentioned the possibility to play there, and I can't conceive they didn't check if it's possible to do so, so there must be a problem somewhere with that.

[Guest Ed]

Le Florida seems like a good choice to me.

[Tuscan]

There has to be a way to keep this in Montreal. What about putting temporary turf in the Bell Center (holy sh*t I just made myself laugh hard). The Montreal Alouettes website says that they are going to be playing their final home game(s) plus the Grey Cup at the Big O. Is all the safety concern revolving around that place only relevant to snow causing the roof to collapse? Couldn't it snow before the Grey Cup? What would they do then? I assume they would have to halt the renos being done to Molson Stadium and play the game outside. Somehow the quarter final will stay in Montreal.

[Cyrus]

quote:Originally posted by Tuscan

There has to be a way to keep this in Montreal. What about putting temporary turf in the Bell Center (holy sh*t I just made myself laugh hard).

If only it were legal to play a match in a hockey arena! Arena Football would solve so many facility problems in our country -- however, an NHL rink is what, 26m X 61m? Bare minimum for football is 45m x 90m.

[BrennanFan]

Gerry Dobson:

Mark this one in your calendar. Good as gold. Montreal versus someone at Olympic Stadium between February 24 and 26.

And yes, we're told there will be no football lines. Hallelujah.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/soccer/blogs/2008/10/30/dobson_impact_blog/

[CanadianSoccerFan]

What about the turf? Someobody here said the FieldTurf from the U20's is gone. Will they play on the concrete astroturf?

[Daniel]

What surface are they using at the Grey Cup?

And weren't there 2 surfaces for the U20s?