Natural or artificial turf?

Nowadays many local teams are planning to change their natural grass for an artificial turf. There are many pros and cons on this subject. As you might know, living in the tropic is very nice, but you get heavy rain in the winter, so the grass gets really mushy and slippery. And when you have 22 players on a wet, swampy pitch it can literally destroy the grass. This is why many teams are considering the artificial turf because rainy days wouldn´t be a problem anymore. The teams that are currently planning to do so are: Santos de Guapiles, Paraiso de Cartago, San Carlos, and Alajuelense (under construction). Brujas FC and Barrio Mexico have an artificial grass surface. Saprissa was the fist team that placed artificlal turf, it was about 5 years ago and it cost around $US 600 000.

Making this change is not cheap at all. But you have to consider which is more expensive, giving maintenance to an always green, no lawn cutting, artificial pitch… or natural grass which depends strictly on the weather, fertilizers, plagues, sunlight etc. I would stick to option A, but there are more things to consider.

Many doctors say that artificial grass can cause more knee injuries. The surface is harder and when a player falls, its knees can get really hurt. A natural surface gives sort of a ¨natural bounce¨. I´m not saying that if you play on a natural pitch, you cant get injuries, but its much more soft. Another thing to consider is that the ball has a strange bounce on an artificial pitch; many players complain about this.

Having an artificial pitch means that your surface can take much more stress, so that means that you can shows, concerts, and many other things that can bring some money in. This is why many teams are considering the change also.

I think that having artificial grass can really help local teams not having to delay or suspend fixtures because of bad weather. But if it was up to me, I would invest in the best drainage systems, instead of changing to an artificial surface.

What do you think??