Building For Leisure Artificial surfaces
The future is
sports surfaces industry is moving in directions undreamt of
baptism of fire in the 1980s as football pitches laid at some of the top teams of the day, such as Luton and
20 years ago. It suffered, and survived, a
after the outcry from other clubs over unfair
Queen's Park Rangers, were soon ripped up
poor performance characteristics.
advantage and 58 The synthetic
GREEN
The synthetic sports surfaces industry is moving in directions undreamt of twenty years ago. It suffered, and survived, a baptism of fire in the 1980s as football pitches laid at some of the top teams of the day, such as Luton and Queen’s Park Rangers, were soon ripped up after the outcry from other clubs over unfair advantage and poor performance characteristics. Synthetic grass, however, was a major factor in the emergence of British hockey as a world force (Great Britain won the Hockey World Cup in 1986). Also, its role in community use is unquestioned.
But it is football’s uncertain financial state in all but the top-flight clubs that could herald a bright, green future in which synthetic surfaces cover most if not all match pitches, save for the premier divisions in England and Scotland. The key driver is cost- effectiveness. Can football grounds really afford to lay idle for most of the year, when they could so easily cater far more for sporting demand?
According to David Brown, business development director of sports surfaces contractors ERDC Group Ltd, most league clubs will lay synthetic turf in their grounds in the coming years, largely to attract greater levels of usage. Some in Scotland have done so already, he reports, with plans to fling open their doors to the wider community to take advantage of local use. “It’s a question of viability,”
Brown says. “The lower divisions simply cannot afford to carry on using their facilities as seldom as they do now.”
ERDC, who are agents for
Fieldturf, have installed a 3G synthetic pitch at Stenhuismuir FC and at Hamilton Academical’s Douglas Park stadium, where their “nice green grass pitch” had attracted only “sporadic” use. After two full seasons in action, the pitch now hosts professional club training sessions during the day until 4pm when the kids descend on it for two hours of youth coaching before the evening use, which includes youth
team games and Scottish Football League matches.
Market drivers
Most pitch carpets are manufactured abroad – in France, Holland and Belgian for example – and UK contractors are limited to supplying the products they represent.
The manufacturers
therefore have the whip hand to dictate the direction that the industry moves in, says Simon Hall, director of Bernhards Sports Surfaces, the UK agents for Mondo and other European manufacturers. “They conduct most of the R & D.” But whatever is done, it is done “to cater for market forces”, he adds. Such forces have driven the development of the so-called 3G (third generation) surfaces that seem to be fitting the bill admirably for football and rugby use. TigerTurf (UK) Ltd, who manufacture a full range of artificial grass products for sport and leisure, test their football and rugby products “to the highest level, both
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