Winter Sports


Mention the expression ‘all weather’ to most sports administrators and players and they will automatically think of artificial turf.


However, those who followed the England team during the recent Rugby World Cup in New Zealand will have noticed that their first three pool games were played on a very different type of surface - tucked away near the bottom of the South Island is the world’s first permanently- roofed stadium with natural turf, where not a single drop of rain will ever fall on the surface.


This impressive stadium is the 30,000 seat, Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin, the most southerly professional stadium in the world. Built for a fixed cost of approximately £100m, the new stadium is very different from the other grounds around the country that received upgrades in the lead-up to the event.


Not only was the stadium a massive challenge from a political and budgeting perspective, but significant challenges were also raised by its design in terms of engineering and turf requirements. The stadium


opened on 1 August 2011, barely a month before the beginning of the biggest sporting event ever held in New Zealand, and it took just over five years to complete the project from when the original concept was first put to paper.


This article provides an insight into how the stadium came to be and the many agronomic challenges that needed to be overcome.


Dr Richard Gibbs, Technical Director of Sports Surface Design & Management, explains how the stadium offers the best of both worlds!


The BEST of both WORLDS!


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