Stanford Soccer Club and Palo Alto Soccer Club’s community soccer field, Mayfield, will be temporarily closing the north field due to deterioration of the synthetic turf.

In recent months, the condition of the turf has significantly worsened with frequent clumps of melted rubber littered on the fields, causing the City of Palo Alto to close the field on Thursday, Sept. 1.

“The turf has started lumping up a lot more,” Palo Alto High School senior Charlie Merkel said. “Just 15 minutes after cleaning my cleats off, a solid layer of turf gets stuck to the bottom of my cleat.”

The south field will remain open to provide teams with a space to practice despite having similar turf quality to the north field. 

“Just 15 minutes after cleaning my cleats off, a solid layer of turf gets stuck to the bottom of my cleat.”

— Charlie Merkel, senior

The soccer clubs gathered volunteers yesterday to clean up Mayfield South and nearby El Camino Park in hopes of preventing these fields from closing as well.

Players from both soccer clubs said they believe that this will help decrease injuries on the turf field and also make playing easier in general.

“There are always lots of people complaining that passing and just kicking that ball are a lot harder because of all the turf stuck on our cleats,” senior Ethan Wong said. “I’ve seen some people twist their ankles too, so it’s good that they’re finally fixing the turf.”