Artificial turf recommended for Commonwealth Stadium

EDMONTON — The grass field at Commonwealth Stadium will be punted in favour of artificial turf if city council approves.

A report going to council on Wednesday recommends the city enter an agreement with the Edmonton Eskimos to replace the sod with artificial turf before the regular CFL season starts in June. Commonwealth Stadium is the only one in the CFL with natural grass.

"Mother Nature has been equalled if not surpassed. What we have now looks like and plays like grass should," Dave Jamieson, the club's director of communications and marketing, said Tuesday.

"Anyone who remembers our last game last year which was played in a heavy downpour, or the 2002 Grey Cup, which was played the day after ice fog rolled in and made that surface terrific for hockey, but not for football, will understand that grass . . . is unreliable," Jamieson said.

Artificial turf requires no water or fertilizer use, he said.