Dear Editor,
Richmond is known for excellent sporting facilities. It maintains a variety of fields used for sports like football, field hockey, soccer, lacrosse and baseball. The quality, safety and accessibility of these facilities has become a hallmark of the city.
In 2006 the city installed Field (artificial) Turf at Hugh Boyd Park. At the time it was highly regarded, however, by 2010 this make of turf was discontinued due to poor quality and a successful class action suit against the manufacturer. This turf is finally scheduled to be replaced next summer, eight years after the expiration of its warranty. In the meantime there are anecdotal reports of increased injuries due to the worn out turf, such as concussion, ligament tears, joint fractures and acute inflammation.
Similarly, the turf at the Minoru Oval, installed in 2008, is now six years past its warranty expiration and is now breaking down (see photo taken Sept. 3). It’s not scheduled to be replaced until 2021. Poor quality, and worn out, artificial turf represent safety and liability concerns for children and adults as well as the city, school boards and the sports clubs that use the fields. In addition, the characteristics of the turf that resemble play on natural grass have long since disappeared rendering the playing field very hard and not conducive to good quality soccer.
With this in mind it may be in everyone’s best interests for the replacement schedule, for Minoru Oval, and other worn out fields to be moved up to at least 2019 to minimize avoidable injuries. It would also be helpful if the city were to request that sports associations report their injury data annually so that it can be analyzed and inform the safety of facilities, training methods and perhaps even rules that can influence child participation rates, which for some safety related reasons, have been on the decline in recent years.
Bill Barrable
RICHMOND
