I live right next to a high school and I just happened to walk by the football/soccer team practicing last evening. It was a very clean and organized practice, because the field is perfect. I don't know what to think about these kids practicing on artificial grass.
In twenty years, am I going to tell my two boys that we used to have real grass on fields. It's like telling kids now days, that we had too walk to the television to change the channel, or that the telephone was attached to the wall. If you wanted a mobile phone, you needed a really long cord.
A few benefits to the artificial turf are no need for water or mowing. You don't need to catch gophers or moles, who can destroy a lawn. Plus the lawn looks perfect until it needs to be replaced after many years of ware and tare.
I just feel like the kids of my generation had it better. We played hard on muddy fields with stickers and holes. We never complained about the poor condition of our fields, because it never mattered to us.
Kids will be afraid of mud in the future, because it will be the unknown. I'm 