Even the Field
Even the fields we play on have bias.
6:10a on International Women’s Day the Players’ Tribune hits my inbox as it does around that time every day. But this time was a little different. First, last week I got myself to Inbox Zero. No messages, unread or otherwise. It felt great. And maintaining it for the week felt even better.
But when this came in, I couldn’t delete it. I couldn’t move it. It just sat there.
First, the Players’ Tribune coverage of women’s sports have been above average by my estimation, if not equal. They have provided a voice at important moments to female athletes. But it does seem a missed opportunity not to give a Billie Jean King or Serena Williams or Julie Foudy or one of dozens of other female pioneers the platform of your space “above the fold” on that day.
But the reason it lingered in my inbox is because there was an article from the archives in the bottom of that e-mail digest. It’s from December 7, 2015 when the USWNT went to the US Soccer Federation and refused to play at Aloha Stadium due to the risks that the synthetic field posed.
The article is articulate and lays out the details of the timeline surrounding the week in Hawaii, including Pinoe’s ACL.
There is a larger, more vital conversation about turf — as it concerns women’s soccer — that continues to make progress. But turf is our reality right now; we play on it all the time. This decision wasn’t about “turf vs. grass.” This was about field conditions and player safety.
— USWNT in The Players’ Tribune, December 7, 2015
The US Women’s National’s trials and tribulations with synthetic turf are well documented. But as the women wrote in the TPT article, “There is a larger, more vital conversation about turf — as it concerns women’s soccer — that continues to make progress.” It does continue to make progress. I have taken responsibility over the past four years as the Director of Soccer at AstroTurf to ensure that it does.
This is not about me. This is about the reality that fields are the most vital resource in sports. In soccer, for years the struggle for field time was between soccer and other sports. Through the 80s, 90s and 2000s battles were won in towns across America and investment was made by private organizations and clubs to grow the footprint of soccer.
When we look back at the history of our sport in the US, this will be viewed as a vital time in the incubation period for an American style or an American soccer culture that can be uniquely identified beyond a “melting pot” or a juxtaposition of competing styles patch-worked across America.
Culture grows the same place young athletes do. On fields, in Sunday leagues, through sleep crusted eyes early Saturdays and Sundays, in hotels with teammates or on away trips with friends. The one thing that is true of all of those events — a field is at the center of it.
Fields evoke emotions, memories. They represent possibility and opportunity. They are the blank canvas on which masterpieces are painted. They litter Instagram accounts and Facebook pages from clubs, media and fans alike.
What we at AstroTurf have done is first and foremost, we’ve listened. We have heard what the players, parents and coaches have been saying.
It has not gone unnoticed that the people asking questions about fields and field safety are mostly women: Amy Griffin, Julie Foudy, Abby Wambach, even in Congress where Senators Boxer, Murray, Feinstein, Gillibrand, Murkowski and Cantwell were joined by several male colleagues in sending a letter of support on behalf of the players regarding equal treatment in November of 2014.
When Amy Griffin asked questions regarding health concerns as they relate to crumb rubber, she was not doing so for publicity or her own sake but for the sake of the millions of children who play on synthetic fields everyday.
The reports that followed on NBC News and ESPN raised legitimate questions and led to increased scrutiny and testing. In November of 2016, the Synthetic Turf Council, the Safe Fields Alliance and the Recycled Rubber Council members committed to voluntarily adhere to ASTM Toy Standards for synthetic turf infills.
But beyond that, a truth had become clear to us at AstroTurf Soccer. Crumb rubber was not the best solution moving forward for synthetic soccer systems. In our 2016 AstroPlay Brochure, I wrote this open letter:
It’s a good thing that crumb rubber is not causing cancer. But it doesn’t solve the problem of soccer players, coaches and parents not being satisfied that crumb rubber is the best solution for soccer fields. I am those who believe that it is not. From a performance, playability and temperature stand point, we have evolved soccer-specific fields beyond what crumb rubber can offer. Women’s soccer and the US Women’s National Team is a huge reason why that is true. And they should be acknowledged for their efforts.
E-mail or message me if you want to know more about the specific differences in the systems. But know that those who are doing their homework about what options exist for their players are moving in this direction. This is the future of fields.
The StubHub Center in their recent announcement of the replacement of Field 7 specifically addressed their new LA Galaxy’s Girls’ Development Academy teams access to a safe synthetic field on which to train and play. AstroTurf is proud to supply the SHC and hundreds of other schools, parks and facilities around the country with a new generation of crumb rubber fields.
In the meantime, I continue to support the players in their CBA negotiations, of which I’m certain fields are a talking point. The players are right in demanding the highest quality facilities. They’re not correct in assuming those will always be grass facilities. Next time I will elaborate on the role that natural grass is playing in the development of better synthetic surfaces.
