ST. LOUIS (May 9, 2005) -- The St. Louis Rams, who have long complained about the rock-hard consistency of their artificial playing surface, are getting a new field next season.
A news conference has been scheduled to announce the new playing surface for the Edward Jones Dome.
The Rams' lease with the city, St. Louis County and Convention and Visitors Commission requires that the stadium turf be in the top eight of NFL stadiums by July 2005. The stadium will have FieldTurf, which has become the standard for artificial fields in the NFL and has been likened to playing on natural grass.
The Rams have played on the same carpet-over-concrete field since the dome opened in 1995. The past few seasons, their indoor practice facility has been equipped with FieldTurf, and head coach Mike Martz complained a handful of times about the unforgiving nature of the surface at the stadium.
The Convention and Visitors Commission initially had resisted the change because it would hinder the dome's ability to hold conventions and trade shows.
