Is your field ready for some football?

Submitted by Mark Novak, Senior Associate/Sport Leader (Boston, MA)

This Sunday is Super Bowl Sunday and the first NFL playoff game in Dallas’ new Cowboys Stadium. Like many new stadiums, Cowboys Stadium features synthetic turf, which is becoming increasingly popular at facilities that not only host high-contact sports like football, but also market themselves as year-round venues for various other sporting and entertainment events.

The debate over natural versus synthetic turf continues to swirl in athletic field design circles, with both surfaces having pros and cons depending on their intended uses. But professional-grade football stadiums certainly seem to be making the switch to synthetic thanks to tough weather-related conditions on natural grass and the increasing demand on the fields. The Pittsburgh Steelers’ Heinz Field, for example, has been criticized for its inconsistent natural grass playing surface. Heinz Field is not only the home of the Pittsburgh Steelers but it is also hosts the University of Pittsburgh Panthers, several area high school football championships, and other athletic events. Due to the ever increasing demand on the field, a decision has recently been reached to convert Heinz Field to synthetic turf.

Gillette Stadium

In 2006, the owners of the New England Patriots made the move to convert Gillette Stadium’s natural grass to synthetic turf after several consecutive games played during bad weather damaged the field. While the mid-season switch was instigated primarily for that season’s NFL play, the decision was influenced by many more factors outside of football. For starters, Gillette is also the home field for the New England Revolution, a Major League Soccer team. And, at the time the stadium was in the midst of planning Patriot Place, a retail development surrounding and connected to the stadium, including shops, restaurants, and a hotel. Patriot Place has been part of the site’s growth into a major entertainment hub for the greater Boston area, with the stadium now hosting concerts, NCAA lacrosse tournaments, and other events that certainly add wear and tear to the field surface.

Lincoln Fields in Lexington, Massachusetts

This is one area in which synthetic turf seems to be winning the debate—it undeniably holds up to such constant demand better than natural grass could. And it’s not just the professionals that are looking for that kind of flexibility; many colleges, high schools, and community recreation departments are also looking for ways to stretch their resources. A few years ago, the Town of Lexington, Massachusetts, for instance, launched a big effort to convert several of its playing fields to synthetic turf. The conversion solved a number of problems for them, from the major strain the high demand of the community athletic program was putting on the natural grass fields to the new turf’s ability to function as a stormwater detention basin.

Of course, synthetic turf is not always the best solution—different fields have different needs and should be designed accordingly. But as more high-demand, multi-purpose facilities like Cowboys Stadium take shape, we won’t see a decline in its use anytime soon.

Enjoy the game!