ARTIFICIAL TURF
STADIUM ECONOMICS
Stadium Economics
Modern football stadiums and sports arenas are profit-oriented enterprises that provide optimal conditions for sports and entertainment and highest possible convenience for the audience. The pitch has to be in perfect shape throughout the championship season. Natural grass deteriorates very easily, therefore the main pitch is used only for championship matches. Extra pitches are needed for training and for the youth and amateur teams of the club. The maintenance of a natural turf can be very expansive.
Music concerts and shows
Besides that stadiums are used for a variety of non-sports events like music concerts and shows. The operators are interested in extra income by letting their asset, and the music industry needs large locations that may host a large audience. Due to decreasing CD sales, live concerts have an ever growing importance for the industry. However, even with protective coverings a natural turf might be severely damaged by such events. The grass needs a recovery period before a championship match can be played on it again. Therefore concerts cannot take place on Fridays or Saturdays when a match is scheduled on subsequent Sunday.
Modern Stadium architecture
 In order to provide the fans maximum convenience, a lot of stadiums today have a full-weather-protection roof. Heavy rain or glistening hot sunlight can no longer disturb the pleasure of watching an exiting sports event. However, the effect for the turf is bad air circulation and insufficient sunlight. These circumstances make a regular re-soiling of the turf necessary. But this is very costly. In 7 years time the Amsterdam Arena had to be re-soiled 30 times, each costing up to 150.000 Euro.
Artificial turf is the solution
 More and more football clubs and stadium operators are interested in using artificial turf. An artificial pitch provides a high quality turf with optimal playing characteristics independent of climatic influences throughout the whole year. The pitch can be used more often, also by the youth and amateur teams. Music concerts and other shows can take place in the stadium, without consequences for the turf quality.
Modern artificial turf systems have optimal playing characteristics concerning abrasion, suspension and durability. The problems of early synthetic turfs are now overcome and independent quality tests guarantee an optimal product. In November 2004 UEFA and FIFA agreed on common quality standards and certification procedures. Now the top quality artificial turf systems may also be used for international championship matches and therefore more and more stadiums start to re-soil their main pitches – with artificial turf.
- independent of weather and sunlight
- indefinite usage possible
- high durability permits extra events
- low maintenance cost
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