Bob Conroy
Artificial turf replaced natural grass despite players’ safety concerns.
The NFL Carolina Panthers installed a new Bank of America Stadium surface using FieldTurf’ brand artificial turf manufactured and installed by FieldTurf Tarkett, a division of French company Tarkett Inc. They previously had grass.
According to Wikipedia, FieldTurf is headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, its primary manufacturing facility is in Calhoun, Ga., (US).
The Charlotte field features Vertex CORE turf and CoolPlay technology, which is intended to address the artificial turf heat problem by helping to keep the surface cooler than older artificial surfaces.
With the addition of Charlotte Football Club, which begins MLS play next spring, there could be up to 30 professional games a year played in the stadium, plus other sports and entertainment events (panthers.com). But USA Today reported Panthers star Christian McCaffrey also told reporters after practice this summer that players were being a bit cautious on the surface in order to get used to it.
There’s a good reason for that. The NFLPA says players are 69% more likely to suffer a foot or an ankle injury on turf compared with grass. NFL Players Association President J.C. Tretter wants all NFL artificial-surface football fields replaced with natural grass. According to analysis of NFL official injury reports, noncontact knee and ankle football injuries occur much more often on synthetic surfaces.
Fifteen NFL teams play their home games on artificial turf. Tretter cited the league’s stats from 2012 to 2018 that natural grass fields provide a much lower risk for injuries during practices and games. Compared to natural surfaces players have a 28% overall higher rate of noncontact lower-extremity injuries on turf. Noncontact knee injuries occur at a 32% higher rate. (Marketwatch, Charlotte Magazine, panthers.com).
Bull City spends $1.4M to replace grass field with synthetic turf.
In Southwest Durham, the city Parks & Rec replaced a large natural athletic field at Herndon Park transforming the former “grass multi-purpose fields in the lower portion of the site into a synthetic turf multipurpose field. This item will provide a solution to increase programming capabilities for recreation,” as noted on dprplaymore.org.
General Services Dept. Senior Project Manager Rod Florence said approximate value is $1,400,000. 6 turf options were considered. Shaw Sports Turf was used because GeoSurfaces, the contractor with the lowest, responsible responsive bid, included Shaw as their brand to install.
In a nod to safety concerns, the designer, Surface 678, a Durham based landscape architecture studio, required an infill mix that increased the GMAX performance (softness). The usable life of the Herndon Field is 8-10 years according to manufacturers recommendations but lifespan may extend with yearly inspections and proper care of turf repairs during an eight-year warranty period.
Herndon renovations also included the conversion of a small youth turf field into a parking lot. Some localities have cited potential presence of chemicals that may pose health risks and have banned turf that uses crumb rubber made from recycled car tires (NY Times). Currently there are no plans to install artificial turf on the grass Herndon baseball fields.
In Chapel Hill, the town is considering what to do for turf replacement at Cedar Falls soccer field. When the Homestead Park soccer fields were replaced, they used cork infill, a 100 percent natural product.