Dallas Cup Pulls SuperGroup Games from Pizza Hut Park Complex
March 4th, 2008 . 4:20 pm . By: Buzz CarrickUpdate on Peter Welpton’s blog post this morning: The Dallas Cup XXIX schedule has been revised and all the SuperGroup games have been pulled from the Pizza Hut Park Complex and will now take place at Richland College. While no one with PHP or the Dallas Cup has commented specifically on the moved games, sources familiar with the move cite the condition of the PHP fields as the reason for the change. The Dallas Cup has kept their SuperGroup events that are scheduled to take place inside the PHP main stadium in place as that field is in good shape. Games for other groups scheduled at PHP remain as originally planned. Several significant local soccer people to whom 3rd Degree has talked attributed the poor conditions to overuse combined with a possible irrigation problem. Word in the local soccer scene is that the State Cup has already pulled out of using PHP. We’re also hearing rumbles of trouble with both the locals men’s league and the Classic League based around conditions, overuse, and scheduling. The good news is that FCD seems well aware of the problem and is working on solutions. “We know the fields get a lot of use, but we are aware of the situation,” said FC Dallas PR man German Sferra when reached in Brazil. “The fields are for the use of our community and we want all our partners to be able to use them. We are going to approach our partners to see if we can work out a way to moderate the usage of the fields.” Use of the complex for FC Dallas training, other professional club training, the ODP National Championships, the USYSA National Championships, a National Lacrosse tournament, the US Soccer Development Academy, Sueño MLS ‘08, adult leagues, Hispanic league, youth leagues, and the Classic League have all helped worsen the problem. The odd winter that caused the troubles with the main field were likely also factors in the trouble with the grass. It’s unclear if there is a short term solution for the PHP ground crew to fix the problem. A simple re-sod of the fields may not do the trick as new turf doesn’t hold up well and PHP likely can’t afford to shut the entire complex down. A field-by-field close and rebuild may be the only solution other than long term re-growth and decreased usage. It make takes months or even an entire year’s growth to recover the complex. 13 Comments Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI Leave a comment |
Simply……they should keep grass fields for games only, and soccer games at that. Maybe allow practices on a rotating batch of 4 fields or something like that.
1. Someone @ FCD needs to be fired for bringing in the lacrosse tournament. It did more damage to the complex & stadium field than all other events put together.
2. FCD KNEW that PHP was overscheduled. They just didn’t care about the fields. For FCD to ask for help from the same “partners” that they sell the field time to is ludicrous. Plain and simple- FCD OVERSOLD field usage rights.
3. FCD needs to get a handle on PHP quick. The soccer paradise on main street is now worse than Moss Park.
It’s all about the $$’s…they started using the fields really soon after putting in the grass and haven’t had a rotation that allows enough down time for each of the fields…we were out there for my kids game this weekend and they are in terrible shape…Richland is in great shape…largely because they have been getting some rest due to PHP taking a lot of the load.
PHP is a great complex and the fields are awesome…they just need to build in sufficient down time for the fields to recover occasionally.
tater,
the lacrosse tourney didnt do as much damage as you think. They played half of their games on the 2 turf fields (Dr. Pink & Field 3). i was out there sitting in the stands watching since i played lacrosse in college. There rest of the facility was in use with the second weekend of State Cup out there.
believe me, 1 weekend of lacrosse didnt have any effect on those fields compared to ALL the soccer (scheduled games, tournaments, and FCD Youth practices) being held out there.
The stadium field never recovered from lacrosse. It looked like crap the rest of the season.
All I can say is “ouch!”. Talk about being bitten on the bum.
Is anyone surprised? Three years ago when I heard the deal on doing concerts, high school football and pretty anything else that turned a buck you could see this coming.
This has no effect on the PHP stadium field, the Adidas field and the practice synthetic turf field. Otherwise, moving a few youth tournament games due to late winter field conditions is not unusual. Otherwise, so what?
Are we chatting about FC Dallas and their prospects, or is this now a horticultural website?
Methinks that 1 lacrosse game on the stadium field did absolutely nothing to damage the main pitch. It, at least, did less damage than the Jimmy Buffet concert or multiple Dallas Cup Super Group games and Opening Ceremonies, or the frozen tundra game against Guatamala (US Nats) or the Interliga.
A lone lacrosse game (college club level) isnt much compared to all that. Just my 2 cents since i played lacrosse in college and in those very National Championships in previous years when it was in St. Louis.
they’re saying it’s the residual herbicide from last spring’s intentional kill-off of the winter rye.
On the home page here of 3rddegree,net click on Peter Welpton’s piece – the header is to the right of the main articles.
just click on the highlighted words [PWW's blog post] in the 1st paragraph of the article
Can’t we blame it on Global Warming?
IDallas Cup super group have been moved to Richland due to the conditions of PHP Fields. Richland now has a mini stadium which has an amazing field that will be used for the super group games. In other news Liverpool has announced their roster and is bringing 11 international players. Benfica will not have Adu(stop emailing me about this). Tigres has listed a local player as a guest player. Hugo DelaRosa from Garland,TX is his name and will be wearing Tigres colors in the super group. I looked him up and he use to be a player for FC Dallas youth and now is a part of Dallas Tigres Academy. Some academy thats really growing around the metroplex.
Chivas, Tigres and Monterrey will bring their Segunda Division team.