BMO Field's grass guys feeling the pressure

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“Like watching grass grow” is an idiom Robert Heggie doesn't subscribe to.

As BMO Field's head groundskeeper, Heggie does it every day. In his own words, it's his baby, an obsession.

And with Toronto FC's home stadium set to become a shared venue later this year, he's feeling the pressure to deliver a pristine surface for both CFL and MLS games.

“I'm feeling the pressure, but I'm pretty confident,” Heggie told the Toronto Sun. “I'm up for the challenge.

“All I've done for my life is grow grass. We take it personally.”

The challenge, of course, is attempting to maintain a world class soccer pitch despite watching 300-pound linemen stamp all over it a few times per month.

RELATED: Check out our tour of BMO Field this week

For TFC fans, the grass is a concern. The paint is a concern. The aesthetics remain top of mind.

“MLSE has gone all out,” Heggie said of the resources he has been provided, adding his groundskeeper buddies are all jealous.

All out to the tune of $2 million, actually, according to MLSE executive Bob Hunter, who the Sun reached by phone on Thursday.

A point of contention has been the decision to not install a hybrid grass system – a surface that reinforces a natural surface with artificial fibers.

Instead, MLSE has invested $400,000 in a pair of natural grass pitches currently growing in Mount Hope, Ont. They're identical to the pitch currently growing at BMO Field.

“Once you go with hybrid, you're stuck with it,” Hunter explained the decision. “You can't do patching or replacement.”

As Heggie affirmed, the decision provides something of an insurance plan, an immediate back up.

“If you have a hybrid field you're relying on growing grass from seed,” Heggie added. “There's no quick fix. When you have natural grass you have the ability to rip it out and put fresh grass in – thick cut grass that will stay down. You always have that in case of emergency.”

Heggie's reserve pitches are growing in identical soils a short drive away. They'll be trucked in whenever needed.

After being laid, the new sod is considered playable after three days. Toronto FC won't play before five days following a CFL game, with most games arriving a week after the Argos play.

“It's a matter of scheduling more than anything else,” said Dan Almand, a grass consultant with Millennium Sports Technologies Ltd.

“It's about giving the field enough time to recover between events.”

Almand agrees with MLSE's decision to suspend the installation of an originally planned hybrid system.

It might not make sense – especially when you consider all the cash MLSE is pouring into the project.

“It's very significant,” Almand said of MLSE's investment.

“We try to provide as many tools as we can. BMO Field has some of the best technology available in our business right now.”

For starters, in addition to existing sub-pitch technologies, Toronto FC's ownership group invested $1.5 million in nine grass maintenance lighting systems to ensure all portions of the pitch receive proper lighting – a move Almand said will have “amazing” benefits.

“We believe that having the two fields is a better solution,” Hunter said.

“If it doesn't work, we've got to go back. We haven't eliminated the potential down the road that we might need to do hybrid.”

They've done as much as they can to deal with the factors they can control – including doing everything to eliminate distracting football lines.

Nothing enrages North American soccer fans more than seeing bright white gridiron lines littering a soccer pitch.

It happens occasionally in other shared venues in Seattle and New England. It's unacceptable by TFC fans' standards.

Knowing that, Heggie phoned up Wembley Stadium last year to find best practices before eventually deciding on the same paint product used in London. The paint, which is produced in Australia, is mixed with malt extract.

Heggie and his crew have been testing it at the Kia Training Ground for months now.

“There's some reaction between the remover and the malt,” Heggie explained. “The paint falls off with agitation from the water.”

MLSE groundsman going with Australian-based paint for lines (fourth from right). #TFC #CFL https://t.co/wsh37mMJEv pic.twitter.com/FK8EQqOvkd

— Kurtis Larson (@KurtLarSUN) February 5, 2016

The process of removing football lines this year will begin at the conclusion of every CFL game and could extend overnight.

“The life of a groundsman,” Heggie added.

They'll also shift the CFL field game-to-game to ensure lines aren't constantly being repainted in the same areas of the field.

Oh, and there won't be any Double Blue paint used anywhere on the natural surface.

“There's no coloured logos on the field during (CFL) games,” Hunter reaffirmed.

In summary, MLSE is attempting to control what it can control, to reduce the number of variables.

“The kicker is going to be the weather,” Heggie admitted. “If it drops two inches (of rain) during a game it's going to be a different story.

“We have a great setup under the field. It's one of the top in North America. We can pull a lot of water out.”

There are also identical pitches waiting in reserve.

“The players will tell us what they think at the end of the day,” Hunter finished.

They've been their ownership group's biggest critics in the past.

To footballers – and groundsmen, apparently – grass isn't just grass.

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