Soccer on Petroleum.

Today I played soccer with my family on one of the new soccer pitches in our neighbourhood.  They are beautiful.  Not one bare patch.  The grass is the perfect length.  The lines are straight and bleach white.  The plane is also perfect...no divets of any sorts.

How can this be?  In this city of rain, of mud, of little to no maintenance budgets.

Take a closer look.

The "dirt" that this "grass" "grows" on is made up of little black plastic pellets.  The "grass" is actually made of green and white plastic strips.  While playing, if you concentrate on your sense of smell you will notice an unidentifiable odour - tires?  paint?  dye?  glue?  Anyhow....it is not natural.

I understand our desire to play sports on perfect pitches.  But I also know that one can still build real grass pitches and, with money, proper maintenance and usage restrictions, it will remain perfect.  Interestingly enough the people who commissioned these new artificial pitches know this as well as one of the three new pitches is a grass one.

Short-term thinking and a strict focus on financials was the cause of this I am sure.  Too bad really.

Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!

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