Real grass at Torontos Rogers Centre poses major challenges

Imagine: Sitting before you is a scale model of the Rogers Centre, roughly the size of a round roasting pan. Your challenge: to put a real baseball field in the stadium natural grass with a dirt infield by opening day 2018.

Your research has been thorough. Experts at the University of Guelph have determined the ideal species of grass. They have it growing on an Ontario sod farm. They say it will flourish indoors with the roof closed.

Under the right conditions, that is. Your job is to create those conditions.

So open the roof, reach in and toss out that artificial turf, which was new for the 2015 season. Haul out your jackhammer. Rip up the concrete. Install plumbing for irrigation and drainage. Dig some more to accommodate the sod and the dirt infield.

Close the roof. Strip that shiny skin from the four mammoth roof panels. Its the original PVC membrane, circa 1989, and its worn out. While youre at it, you might figure out a way to replace it with a material that lets in the light. Grass likes natural light, and right now, the closed dome shuts it out.

The scientists at Guelph say the grass will grow without natural light, but youll need lots of artificial light enormous banks of mobile grow lights that sit about 10 feet off the ground and nourish the sod when the field is not in use. Youll roll them around between games to focus on the worn spots, even after games played with the roof open.

One more thing. Grass sweats. (Scientists call it transpiration.). Water from the roots vaporizes from the leaf surface into the air. All of that grass will create a lot of humidity, and youve got to figure out a way to get rid of that sticky air or the Rogers Centre will become a sweatbox with the roof closed. So youll need a dehumidifier. Forget Home Depot; you need a really big one.

Now youre ready to install the grass.

Assuming, of course, that your engineers surmounted all of those challenges and you have the budget to make it happen.

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Real grass at Torontos Rogers Centre poses major challenges