Adult sports clubs pay a premium- and some of the highest fees in the region-to play on artificial turf fields although each year the cost to maintain those fields is five to six times less than the best grass fields.
One "Grade A" grass field costs $30,000 to $32,000 each year to keep lush, level, lined and in ideal playing condition for field sports such as soccer, ultimate and rugby. Comparatively, one of the city's nine artificial turf fields costs $5,000 to $6,000 annually, according to information from the park board.
"The amount of money we spend on grass is a lot more," said Thomas Soulliere, manager of recreational services with the park board, citing regular seasonal closures to replenish grass in particular. "The cost of building an artificial turf field is pretty expensive, it seems on the face very expensive. We make all that back on the reduced operating costs."
Despite the higher costs of grass, sports leagues pay much higher user fees to play on turf.
The park board charges up to $45.76 an hour for adults clubs to access one of nine synthetic fields while grass fields are free for youth and even the best, premier grass pitches cost $13.62 hourly for adults. Youth leagues pay $22.99 per hour to play on turf fields.
"Part of our rational is based on market demand," said Soulliere. "We look around and determine what the fields are worth."
One turf field brings in $70,000 to $75,000 in user fees. All 141 grass fields in Vancouver generate $300,000 annually, according to Soulliere. The city's 2011 capital plan earmarked just over $1 million for playfields.
Two new artificial fields at Trillium Park near Strathcona cost $4.7 million to install. Extensive upgrades to the popular fields at Connaught Park, which includes rugby, cricket, and soccer fields and three baseball diamonds, will cost in the neighbourhood of $300,000, according to Soulliere.
User fees feed a reserve capital fund for field maintaining, upgrading and replacing fields.
Artificial grass fields extend the amount of playtime fivefold, or about 2,000 hours a year, says park board commissioner Ian Robertson, an advocate of the synthetic playing surface.
"We're not able to recuperate all of the costs trough user fees. But it's one way of providing us with some funding to ensure the fields can be kept and can be replaced when they need to be."
The artificial fields withstand Vancouver's long wet winters, are lit late into the night, and maintain their even surface and "grass" with less upkeep, no mowing and no seeding during their approximately 10-year lifespan.
"In an ideal climate, sure, grass is much more of what they call the perfect game, I totally agree," said Robertson. "Any soccer player given the choice to play on grass or artificial turf would pick grass, but all of the soccer associations were unanimous in their support of artificial turf fields because they know of our rainy and inclement weather."
Robertson says the park board should introduce at least one or two new artificial fields with each threeyear capital plan.
The Vancouver Metro Soccer League spends approximately $62,000 each year on user fees, three quarters of which goes to accessing artificial turf fields.
