Outdoors Indoors

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Outdoors Indoors

Post by Pounder » Fri Mar 14, 2008 7:59 pm

Michigan Bucks play in the Premier Development League, the amateur arm of United Soccer League. They used to be Mid-Michigan Bucks, played in Saginaw, once brought in Carlos Valderrama with Tampa Bay Mutiny by winning their way through the US Open Cup... then ended up losing the "Mid" and playing closer to Detroit.

This year, their new home is, well, interesting to say the least. Scroll down for the schematic.

http://www.ultimatesoccerarenas.com/fac ... vices.html

Do you call this an amateur team with a domed stadium?
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Post by nksports » Fri Mar 14, 2008 11:01 pm

Any chance they could have gotten an extra 10 yards of length and five yards of width. Do that, get some removeable goalposts, add the markings and you could play football as well as soccer.

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Post by Pounder » Fri Mar 14, 2008 11:40 pm

Some fledgling pointyball team could always have thrown in a little money and added a building to the complex... or modified that middle building that's otherwise seemingly set up for lacrosse.

Otherwise, keep your filfthy grid markings off my pitch! :P :D

(Doesn't Big Blue have an indoor practice facility? Heck, Boise State does.)
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Post by logoguru » Sat Mar 15, 2008 6:20 pm

[quote=""nksports""]Any chance they could have gotten an extra 10 yards of length and five yards of width. Do that, get some removeable goalposts, add the markings and you could play football as well as soccer.[/quote]

Its a soccer facility. Do you not understand the concept? And if it's revenue you're worried about, don't. The indoor/outdoor one here makes good money, dudes are rich and all they did was convert an old warehouse.

http://www.fsasports.com/About%20Us.htm
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Post by nksports » Tue Mar 18, 2008 1:36 am

[quote=""logoguru""]Its a soccer facility. Do you not understand the concept? And if it's revenue you're worried about, don't. The indoor/outdoor one here makes good money, dudes are rich and all they did was convert an old warehouse.

http://www.fsasports.com/About%20Us.htm[/quote]

The extra yards long and wide would make it a full-sized field under FIFA rules for international play. But yes, it would make it work for other sports too. Sometimes, flexibility is good (besides, they advertise the fields can be used for lacrosse). I didn't mean to get anyone's panties in a bundle, I'm sorry. :grin:
We have an artificial turf, outdoor field around here that is 113 yards long (because the school district didn't want removable football goalposts) by 65 wide (due to the local rec commission wanting to keep a softball field with a 325 center field fence) and that disqualified it for state tournament play.
FIFA wrote:The field of play must be rectangular. The length of the touch line must
be greater than the length of the goal line.
Length: minimum 90 m (100 yds)
maximum 120 m (130 yds)
Width: minimum 45 m (50 yds)
maximum 90 m (100 yds)
International Matches
Length: minimum 100 m (110 yds)
maximum 110 m (120 yds)
Width: minimum 64 m (70 yds)
maximum 75 m (80 yds)

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Post by Pounder » Tue Mar 18, 2008 2:26 pm

Once upon a time, I was refereeing in, um, lovely Mountain Home, Idaho, when I lived there. The field people for the school district were rather concerned when the soccer people asked for 110 x 70. I'd heard some administrator said "won't the kids die on a field that size?"

As if the game hadn't been played anywhere else or anything.

At 105 x 70 or so, the field gets kind of small, even for high schoolers. With artificial turf (depending on which turf), it's even worse. You want the ball to be in play, not constantly out of touch. I know what FIFA says about field size for "normal" matches, but the fact that they expect 115 x 75 for major events should speak volumes. Kids at 16-18 really need that much space for the game to flow.

Having said that, I'm curious to know what Kansas and others do. I know Idaho insists on natural grass, but they want field complexes (forget stands or fans), the ability to charge admission, and they get the whole thing done in three days for three classifications... patently ridiculous. Oregon is much more sane (five rounds, Tuesdays and Saturdays only), however they seem to prefer artificial surfaces for semifinals and finals because of what the rain and usage does to fields. Point is that everyone's a little different on these matters.
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Post by nksports » Thu Mar 27, 2008 10:15 pm

[quote=""Pounder""]Having said that, I'm curious to know what Kansas and others do. I know Idaho insists on natural grass, but they want field complexes (forget stands or fans), the ability to charge admission, and they get the whole thing done in three days for three classifications... patently ridiculous.[/quote]
The KSHSAA, which administers high school soccer in Kansas, has no set guidelines, like they do in football, about stadium capacity requirements for post-season, but the state tends to pick full-sized turf fields for state finals. Regional quarterfinal and semifinal games are at home sites, so you get what the highest seed's field is (which can vary widely). Regional championship sites tend to be at schools with artificial turf but the state quarterfinals are back on home sites (which I think may change soon to neutral sites).
State semifinal and final sites are held at larger stadiums with turf fields.
We have three boys' classes (6A, 5A and 4-3-2-1A) and two girls' classes (6A and 5-4-3-2-1A). You play a two- to three-round regional (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday), followed by state quarterfinals (the following Tuesday) and state semifinals and finals (Friday and Saturday). Each class has its own state site.
You hear some grumbling from some coaches about the turf fields. I know one girls' coach in the region used to complain about playing on the longer, wider fields than the 100-yard grass field they played on (the local college used the same park, but used full-sized fields). Both now share a 3,500-seat stadium with a full-sized turf field.
There has been a stadium building trend in the state, especially among the larger school districts and small colleges. I live in a town with a 3,500 (actually closer to 4,000) stadium (the one mentioned above) as well as a 3,000-seat stadium built by the local college with a full-sized turf field (it hosted a state high school soccer semifinal and final last year at the Class 4-3-2-1A level, the smallest schools).
Before our stadium upgrades, local high school soccer attendance was about 200-300 a game. With night games (where parents and others don't have to miss work), it can be up to 2,000 a game (but not this year since the local high school team wasn't very good). College attendance actually went down a little since their stadium upgrade. Before, the 4 p.m. game would draw a big crowd with all the students coming out after class, but with 6 and 8 p.m. starts (women, men), all the students are back in their dorms. (Also it tends to get colder later at night later in the season).
A quick survey of the state shows of 19 college programs, five on turf, 10 on grass, three in transition from turf to grass within the next two years and one that plays on both depending on field availability. Kansas State has a very nice outdoor soccer facility on turf, but only offers it as a club sport (Manhattan Christian plays games there and at a city park).
Of 13 junior college programs, two play on turf. One school (Hutchinson CC) has a very nice, full-sized turf field with a 5,000-seat stadium, but has to play at the local high school field (as not to disturb the football team).
In high school on this side of the state (western and central), we have roughly 45 high school programs. Ten play on turf, at least three that I know of are moving to turf. (The entire Wichita City League plays on bad grass fields, which skewers the stats. The Ark Valley-Chisholm Trail League, which has 17 of 24 members playing soccer, has nine on turf and at least two more in transition. The Western Athletic Conference has one on turf, two on grass and one in transition. All of the smaller independent schools are on grass. There's also a 2,000-seat grass stadium (Stryker Field) that hosts some high school games.
There are a handful of turf facilities in the east, but I don't know how many for sure.

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