Rumor

[RebStang]

Winners play on grass. Change Ford to Bermuda.

Both teams in last year's national championship played their home games on FieldTurf.

[ojaipony]

The cheapest thing to do would be to replace the current soccer field with an IPF, and massively upgrade the turf in Ford so that it is of high enough quality to play soccer, football, and lacrosse in the same stadium.

This makes a lot of sense and I actually remember going to an NCAA tournament game against St. John's at Ford years ago so it seems that Ford is suitable for soccer.

Yeah, I'm not sure why this won't happen. Seems like a no brainer. I don't see the downside risk except maybe costs to enable configuration changes although I can't imagine it being very high.

[Mustangs35SMU]

This makes a lot of sense and I actually remember going to an NCAA tournament game against St. John's at Ford years ago so it seems that Ford is suitable for soccer.

Believe the NCAA said they wouldn't return because of that as well (because it's turf and not grass etc).

[Planter's Punch]

This is why people are pushing the NCAA to make soccer a year-round sport.

Players need more game action in college to keep more good players in the university system.

A year round schedule seems reasonable if you can keep cost under control. I noticed SMU soccer played games this spring versus relatively close lower tier soccer teams.

[SMUPhil]

This makes a lot of sense and I actually remember going to an NCAA tournament game against St. John's at Ford years ago so it seems that Ford is suitable for soccer.

Believe the NCAA said they wouldn't return because of that as well (because it's turf and not grass etc).

I remember a few things about that Final Four held in Ford.

First, the grass (we didn't have the fieldturf yet) was all torn up from football season, so SMU replaced about half of it, between the hashes. So you had this terrible-looking half green, half brown field. I remember it looking bad in person and the contrast in grass was even more stark on TV. People in the stands (non-SMU folks) were commenting, "this is terrible...this is the championship hosting site?"

Second, the soccer field dimensions did fit inside the Ford bowl...but just barely. The corners of the soccer field were so close to the brick walls due to the curve that they added blue padded panels, I assume to help players from slamming into a wall of bricks. I'm 99% sure these are still there, you can see them in this pic:

Additionally, with the height of the walls (7 ft?), and the edge of the field so close to the stands, it limited your view of anything going on in the corners. The players would be dribbling down near a corner of the field, and if it was on your side of the stadium, all you could see was the tops of their heads. It was ridiculous.

I want to say we were supposed to host again the following year, but they found another site because of these issues.

[Digetydog]

The cheapest thing to do would be to replace the current soccer field with an IPF, and massively upgrade the turf in Ford so that it is of high enough quality to play soccer, football, and lacrosse in the same stadium.

This makes a lot of sense and I actually remember going to an NCAA tournament game against St. John's at Ford years ago so it seems that Ford is suitable for soccer.

Yeah, I'm not sure why this won't happen. Seems like a no brainer. I don't see the downside risk except maybe costs to enable configuration changes although I can't imagine it being very high.

I may get flamed for this, but nothing says "small time" like a football stadium striped for Soccer and/or Lacrosse. While Ford might be fine to host special events, using it as a home for soccer is a bad idea.

BTW - With the IPF necessarily having turf, I would love to see real grass at Ford. I know FieldTurf is much better than the stuff I played on, but grass much better for football. Frankly, if I was a recruit, I would only consider schools that had real grass fields (3 knee surgeries for me).

[JasonB]

FieldTurf is actually old school now. The seahawks share the same stadium as the Sounders - does that seem small time? There are ways to cover things up.

Playing soccer on a grass field also used by football is pretty much impossible. Changing the Turf inside of Ford to something that would be good for soccer, lacrosse, and football would be much less expensive than any of the alternatives.

Ford is big enough for college soccer. There is flexibility within the game to narrow the field a little bit, and making it just a little more narrow isn't going to make it as small as Spartan Stadium in SJ was or anything crazy like that.

If Dallas were to host the NCAA championship, there is no reason what-so-ever to not host that event at Toyota Stadium instead of Ford.

[Digetydog]

FieldTurf is actually old school now. The seahawks share the same stadium as the Sounders - does that seem small time? There are ways to cover things up.

Playing soccer on a grass field also used by football is pretty much impossible. Changing the Turf inside of Ford to something that would be good for soccer, lacrosse, and football would be much less expensive than any of the alternatives.

Because of enormous attendance differences, I strongly suspect that the economics of the Sounders/Seahawks combo is vastly different from SMU FB/Soccer.


Even if it can be done on FieldTurf, I would rather see grass fields for soccer and FB.
1) Except for special events, Ford should be grass and used for football.
2) The Soccer team deserves their own field. Again, grass is best. (I may be wrong, but I can't imagine many great college soccer players really want to play on plastic).

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

If we played soccer on turf it would absolutely kill recruiting. No way it ever happens.

[LA_Mustang]

DFFH,
Do you think it will be moved to the football practice field? Is that piece of land big enough?

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

DFFH,
Do you think it will be moved to the football practice field? Is that piece of land big enough?

That's what everybody keeps saying. It has been posted on here there is plenty of space for a north-south soccer field in that location.

I still don't understand why they don't save a ton of money and just put the IPF where the football practice fields are now. I know the party line is they don't want to damage the line-of-sight on the Mockingbird entrance, but the school has made the SMU Boulevard the main entrance now anyway. As for a "view of the Meadows Museum", you can't really see it from Mockingbird now anyway.

Plus, putting the IPF in the Westcott location will equally damage the wonderful line-of-sight we have for Moody, Dedman, and Ford today.

Not my money though!

[RebStang]

DFFH,
Do you think it will be moved to the football practice field? Is that piece of land big enough?

That's what everybody keeps saying. It has been posted on here there is plenty of space for a north-south soccer field in that location.

I still don't understand why they don't save a ton of money and just put the IPF where the football practice fields are now. I know the party line is they don't want to damage the line-of-sight on the Mockingbird entrance, but the school has made the SMU Boulevard the main entrance now anyway. As for a "view of the Meadows Museum", you can't really see it from Mockingbird now anyway.

Plus, putting the IPF in the Westcott location will equally damage the wonderful line-of-sight we have for Moody, Dedman, and Ford today.

Not my money though!

I don't think there's any way that a state of the art IPF with a full sized football field could fit on the site of the current practice fields. Due to the location, there are things that could probably be left out - weight room, offices, locker room, etc but it's still going to be a huge facility - over 100,000 square feet even without a lot of the amenities. To do it right, though, would mean it could easily end up being a 150,000+ square foot facility... the question is whether or not the staff wants to keep sharing things like the weight room with other sports.

[RGV Pony]

It's well documented it could've should've would've gone where tennis facility is... And the tennis facility is 45,000sf

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

I know the zoning regulations have been posted here, but I guess I could see where a full IPF with all amenities could potentially have a setback issue right along Mockingbird.

Either way, I think the Pettus area is actually larger than the Westcott area, so it doesn't seem like it would matter which location was used.

[RebStang]

It's well documented it could've should've would've gone where tennis facility is... And the tennis facility is 45,000sf

A full football field covers 57,600 square feet (360 feet by 160 feet). To include 10 feet of space on each sideline would push the space covered to about 65,000 square feet.