Editing XFL (2001) (section)

===Grass stadiums===
The league deliberately avoided placing teams in stadiums with [[artificial turf]], which at the time had a bad reputation both for being unsightly as well as being more hazardous to play on compared to natural turf.<ref>[http://www.xflboard.com/stadiums/index.htm List of stadiums] courtesy of xflboard.com.</ref> The league's requirement for [[grass]] fields automatically ruled out the use of [[dome]]d stadiums since no such stadium capable of accommodating a grass football field existed in the U.S. in 2001 (the only [[retractable roof]] stadiums complete at the time were used exclusively for [[Major League Baseball]]; the first retractable roof stadium for NFL use was not completed until [[NRG Stadium|Reliant Stadium]] opened for the expansion [[Houston Texans]] in [[2002 NFL season|2002]]). Furthermore, every XFL field was designed identically, with no individual team branding on the field. Each [[end zone]] and 50&nbsp;yard line was decorated with the XFL logo, with the endzones also being painted black.

Most of the league's stadiums were football-specific facilities, the only exception being San Francisco's [[Pacific Bell Park]] (home of the [[San Francisco Giants]]) which was built primarily for [[baseball]], but (unlike many newer baseball-specific stadiums) can accommodate football. Two XFL stadiums ([[Giants Stadium]] and [[Soldier Field]]) were also then-current NFL stadiums, while two others ([[Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum]] and the [[Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium]]) had previously hosted NFL games; the NFL would return to the Coliseum when the [[Los Angeles Rams|Rams]] returned to Los Angeles in 2016. The remaining fields were in regular use as [[college football]] venues at the time.

The home team in every stadium was required to occupy the sideline opposite the press box in order to be visible to the television cameras. Due to the odd field dimensions in San Francisco, teams playing there were permitted to occupy the same sideline (a similar arrangement existed in the NFL when the [[Green Bay Packers]] played home games at [[Milwaukee County Stadium]] and in stadiums previously used by the [[Chicago Bears]], [[Detroit Lions]], [[Kansas City Chiefs]] and [[Minnesota Vikings]]).

The all-grass field stipulation caused the league to skip over several of the country's largest markets, including [[Houston]] and [[Philadelphia]], since they lacked a large grass stadium in 2001.<!--Dallas had the Cotton Bowl and Detroit had Tiger Stadium--> In the league's two northernmost markets, Chicago and New York/New Jersey (the latter of which played in [[Giants Stadium]] during a brief window in which the stadium's usual artificial turf had been replaced by natural grass), the combination of the all-grass requirement, midwinter playing season and the fact that the XFL followed shortly after the NFL had used both fields for a full season (in Giants Stadium's case, two full seasons, since the Giants and Jets shared the stadium; the Giants also hosted two playoff games following the [[2000 NFL season|2000 season]]) caused significant damage to the playing fields; at Chicago's [[Soldier Field]], the wear and tear on the field was such that by midseason, the midfield logo of the NFL's [[Chicago Bears]] was clearly visible amid a stretch of dirt and dead grass.

At the time, "next generation" artificial surfaces (which much more closely mimicked grass in appearance, feel and player safety) were slowly being introduced in professional football. In 2000, the [[Seattle Seahawks]] were the first professional team to play on next-generation artificial turf at the [[University of Washington]]'s [[Husky Stadium]], where the Seahawks played in 2000 and 2001 following the demolition of the [[Kingdome]] and prior to the completion of what is now [[Lumen Field]]). Giants Stadium would have a next generation artificial surface installed in 2003; Soldier Field was renovated extensively in 2002 but retained its grass field. Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium and [[Legion Field]] have also installed next-generation turf fields since the demise of the original XFL.