Quote:
Originally Posted by Simanium
Probably because it's not as economical given the attendance for the Women's world cup was about 26,000/game, compared to when it was in the US and they averaged 68,000/game. Also FIFA has stated that sooner or later mens World Cup games will be played on turf at some point and my understanding is part of the reasoning of playing on turf was a test run before allowing it for the men's game.
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The two times that the US hosted the Women's World Cup, their average attendance was about 37,000 and 20,000. In the States they just have a bunch of stadiums to choose from, plus a climate that is better suited to growing real grass.
I still think that FIFA would prefer real grass, and if the Men's World Cup was ever to come to Canada, I'd bet that it would still played on real grass. The scale of the tournament is such that temporarily outfitting real grass would make sense.
Long term, however, I don't foresee any Canadian stadiums going back to real grass permanently. Our summer is too short, and most facilities are shared with the CFL. Artificial just makes sense, especially now that the artificial surfaces are so much better than they used to be.
BMO Field in Toronto is the outlier here. Toronto FC finally got a nice real grass surface, and now the Argos are moving in to chew it up all summer long.