Letters To The Editor

Albi project bad for soccer

Why is money being spent on Joe Albi Stadium for an artificial soccer field? It appears the football stadium field is being widened to meet dimensions for a soccer field that will allow the semipro Spokane Shadow to call the bouncing AstroTurf field their home.

Many support the effort as the improvements will also allow our high school teams to prepare for state tournaments against West Side teams that play on artificial turf. However, this view is bad for high school soccer. It’s also bad for the Spokane Shadow, bad for soccer fans, and bad for Spokane.

Soccer is a natural-grass game. Anyone who has watched a good match on natural grass and tried to watch good teams struggle on artificial turf can see the game is significantly degraded on artificial turf. Instead of a graceful display of distribution, collection and movement on natural grass, the turf game is like watching 22 skilled athletes stuck inside a giant Lotto Powerball game groping hopelessly at the bouncing balls.

We are looking the wrong way if we are using Seattle as our model for building Inland Northwest soccer. The international governing body for soccer, FIFA, has mandated the use of natural grass for American professional soccer that began this year with the enormously successful Major League Soccer. Unfortunately, many of the amateur leagues and developmental level teams are led by people who don’t understand the game and don’t understand the importance of FIFA’s message.

Soccer is the world’s game and the world plays on natural grass. The area high schools and the Spokane Shadow should be playing on a level, 120-by-80 yards of natural grass field so they can learn the beautiful game of soccer at international levels. Seattle plays on turf because of the Seattle Parks Department, hardly the model for Inland Northwest soccer. John E. Finnegan Spokane