When Toronto FC kicked off its season back in March, there was as much talk about BMO Field’s grass as there was about the team that would play on it.

With the Toronto Argonauts moving in from the Rogers Centre — a move heavily criticized by Reds fans — all eyes were on head groundskeeper Robert Heggie, who vowed the new football tenants wouldn’t muck up the field for soccer.

Nine months later, the pitch is pristine and many of the doubters have been silenced. But the work is far from done.

After Sunday night’s Grey Cup game between the Ottawa Redblacks and Calgary Stampeders at BMO, Heggie’s crew has just three days to repair and convert the field for Wednesday night’s deciding leg of the MLS Eastern Conference final between Toronto FC and the Montreal Impact.

“I think if we can pull this off . . . that might shut up the rest of the naysayers,” he told the Star.

To pull off the speedy conversion ― in one of the most demanding time frames of the season ― they plan to dig in around the clock, doing roughly six days worth of work in half the time.

That includes scrubbing away the Supaturf, an Australian brand of removable paint used to draw the gridiron, as well as adding green sand as top dressing and green pigment with sprayers.

Luckily, the field has not been played on since TFC’s last home game on Oct. 30. Three games in that week took a toll on the pitch, but the lengthy break means the grass is as full and healthy as it’s been all season, even with cooler temperatures.

“It’s next to perfect. It’s as good as it’s been since before the first Argos game, I’d say right now,” Heggie said Wednesday.

Heggie had a backup plan in place this season, using turf that grows in the Hamilton area, but has never needed it.

“If there was CFL playoffs here and other things happening and the timeline was a little tighter, something might have happened,” he said.

The grass will need to be replaced before next season, though, after the NHL descends for the outdoor Centennial Classic between the Maple Leafs and Red Wings on Jan. 1.

How do you plant a new field in Toronto in February? Stadium general manager Peter Church said Heggie and his team have been working on solving that problem for about a year.

Their solution: a $500,000 cover, bought in Europe, that will be placed over the field like a heated bubble. Heggie’s crew can then re-sod and grow the grass no matter how bad the weather gets.

Church estimates Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment has spent more than $7 million in total on grow lights, Supaturf, the cover and tools for maintaining the pitch. That’s money well spent, he adds.

“It really turned BMO Field into a world-class facility when it comes to ground technology.”

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Heggie has said in the past that he asks star players Michael Bradley and Sebastian Giovinco for input about the field’s condition and there have been no complaints.

Unlike in Montreal on Tuesday, where the first leg of the series was delayed by more than 40 minutes because Olympic Stadium’s 18-yard boxes were painted too narrow, Heggie doesn’t expect any hiccups in the finale. He plans to follow a simple motto to make sure: “Measure twice, paint once is the rule of thumb.”

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