PHILADELPHIA -- The high-tech fake grass that covers the
playing surface of Veterans Stadium has taken on added importance
to Philadelphia Eagles president Joe Banner.
"There are players all around the NFL reading the stories today -- maybe a free-agent we want to sign next off-season, maybe a
player on our team we want to re-sign this season," Banner said.
One day after the preseason opener was canceled at Veterans
Stadium because the field was unplayable, the stadium's new turf,
called NeXturf, was the subject of much study. The city even
brought in an engineering firm to inspect the field and provide
recommendations to the city, which owns the much-maligned Vet.
As red-faced city officials tried to determine what exactly went
wrong, they vowed to have the turf in shape for the rest of the
Eagles' season.
"It is our expectation and our desire to have this stadium in a
suitable playing condition for the remainder of this season," said
Joe Martz, the city's managing director.
Monday night's game between the Eagles and the Baltimore Ravens
was called off after officials, coaches and players from both teams
thought the turf could affect players' footing.
The grounds crew had begun preparing the field for football
Sunday following the Phillies' six-game homestand. It was the first
time that the Vet's new turf had been converted from baseball to
football.
Heavy rain over the weekend caused the dirt along the basepaths
to become extremely soft, making the turf on top mushy and uneven,
Martz said.
"I think more than anything else what was most remarkable was
the amount of water that settled under the basepaths," he said.
NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue officially canceled the game
Tuesday after a conference call with Banner, Eagles owner Jeff
Lurie and president David Modell of the Ravens.
The teams' preseason schedules are too crowded to allow the game
to be made up, NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said. Each has a game this
Saturday, and again next Thursday.
The Eagles lost between $5 million and $10 million because of
the cancelation, but hoped to recoup at least some of that through
insurance, Banner said. He refused to say whether the team would
sue the city for restitution.
For a city that's trying to polish its image, "this is clearly
a step backward," Banner said.
The Eagles said they would offer a full refund to an estimated
45,000 fans, many of whom streamed into the Vet box office Tuesday
to demand their money back.
Some were out of luck. Peter Allen and three of his friends
couldn't get a refund because they purchased their $40 tickets from
a season ticket-holder -- not the team.
"We thought we'd get our money back because that's what they
said. Obviously, the stadium announcer didn't read the fine
print," said Allen, visiting from London.
Players noticed the uneven turf during a routine walkthrough 90
minutes before the scheduled kickoff. Grounds crews added layers of
dirt under the cutouts that cover the pitchers mound and base areas
to try to remedy the problem, but the new dirt quickly became as
saturated as the old, said John McGrath, an executive of the union
in charge of installing the field.
"No matter how much dirt they put in there, you still had the
depressions," McGrath said.
Banner said an NFL official noticed the problem as early as
Sunday night, but Martz said he did not know of the concerns until
Monday.
NFL players have annually ranked the Vet's playing surface the
worst in the league. It has claimed numerous victims over the
years, including Chicago Bears receiver Wendell Davis and
quarterback Cade McNown, Eagles linebacker Byron Evans, and Cowboys
receivers Michael Irvin and Rocket Ismail and safety George Teague.
But the Vet's notoriety isn't limited to the turf. Rats have
been spotted running around the bowels of the stadium and the press
elevator routinely gets stuck. Last season, Eagles running back
Duce Staley, already out for the season, slipped and fell in a
puddle of water that formed under a leaky pipe.
A railing collapsed in the stands during the 1998 Army-Navy
game, injuring nine Army cadets and prep school students and
leaving one with a broken bone in the neck.
That sordid history weighed on Banner's mind.
"I'm worried. There's enough of a history here that it would be
crazy to say I'm not worried," he said.
The Eagles are scheduled to move into a new, football-only
stadium for the 2003 season.
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