The new stadium being built for Tottenham Hotspur will be making room for another football team when it opens in 2018 as the NFL have signed a deal to play a minimum of two games a year for ten years at the new London location. Since 2007 the NFL have held 3 games a year at Wembley Stadium as part of its International Series but with the new deal more games will be played in the UK.
There is also talk of a potential London-based team being stationed at the Tottenham stadium, with the Jackson Jaguars having already scheduled to play at least one regular season home game for four years at Wembley until 2016. Crowds of over 80,000 have come to the matches played in England, proving that there is a definite desire to see NFL games played in UK.
But what does this mean for the pitches? The new stadium is being built with an ambitious retractable pitch allowing for the English Premier League games to be played on turf whilst the NFL games are to be played on artificial. Contention has arisen in the past due to the type of field used in games by both organisations, with EPL players decrying the state of the turf after the NFL games have taken place and the NFL citing the presence of turf as contributing cause to injury.
Artificial grass has a big presence in the NFL with just over fifty percent of all NFL stadiums having artificial or a combination of artificial and natural grass fields. The practical benefits of having artificial grass are often cited as reason for installation; natural grass fields need time to recuperate after extensive periods of use which disrupts training whilst artificial do not.
Almost half the clubs in the EPL are equipped with re-enforced natural grass including Arsenal, Manchester City and Liverpool. These are pitches where artificial grass has been inserted into natural pitches so that there is a combination of the two. This provides a hardier surface for vigorous sporting matches. It is a part of a trend in football that has seen an increasing number of professional pitches converting to artificial with the FIFA Women’s World Cup using entirely artificial 3G pitches.
More and more sporting organisations are seeing the benefits of converting to artificial grass, to the extent that artificial pitches may eventually overtake natural as the common place option. They present a more reliable investment than natural turf, with improved durability and less maintenance required. If you want to imitate your favourite sports team or practice your own sporting skills, Trulawn offer a number of grasses perfect for playing games and activities. Give us a call or email today to find out more.
