MONTREAL — There were delighted faces all around at Centre Nutrilait, the Montreal Impact‘s training facility, on Friday morning.
For the first time since April, the Impact practiced on their natural-grass surface. The rebuilt surface represents an investment in the “six-digit mark” according to Patrick Leduc, administrative director of soccer operations. Leduc did not want to go further on the exact costs of the operation, stating the final number isn’t known yet.
“It’s been six months that we’ve been waiting for this,” Jukka Raitala said. “It was very nice to be back to where we should be.”
At the start of the 2019 season, winter ice had damaged the surface and created problems the team didn’t expect.
“This year, as soon as we took the tarp off we saw that there were a lot more dead zones,” Leduc said. “We hoped that it would regenerate with the spring, but we didn’t have much heat this spring and it slowed the process a lot.”
The club had two options: Close down Centre Nutrilait’s grass fields for an extended period of time or rebuild them. With Leduc serving as the middleman between head coach Remí Garde and his staff and president Kevin Gilmore, the Impact chose the latter.
The rebuilding team, led by Serge Tardif, installed its first grass roll on May 27 with a target to complete the job on June 24. The team managed to finish with a few days to spare.
Planning for next winter
Leduc added that the club has damage prevention on its mind since Quebec’s winters won’t get any easier.
“We haven’t finished our decisions on the matter yet, but yes, there are different mechanisms to protect in a different way and to better prevent damage,” Leduc said. “In this case, it really was ice. Snow doesn’t damage but instead acts as an isolation. We had a set of events this winter where there was a lot of freezing and melting, that wasn’t a good start.”
The Impact might have to prepare even earlier for the start of the 2020 season. Speaking in Montreal last May, Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber hinted that opening day could move up on the calendar. Leduc and the Impact remain confident.
“For sure we will have to adapt to the new realities,” Leduc said. “If we’re asked to prepare the field for March, we’ll be ready for it and we will try to prepare it in the best conditions.”