Problems With Artificial Turf

When artificial turf and sports fields were introduced they gained immediate praise. The product seemed to provide a uniform playing field that cut the cost of watering and plant maintenance to nothing. However, the first fields had significant problems in design. Today's artificial turf fields, however, have addressed these concerns and provide good playing fields for various sports.

  1. Initial Design

    • Artificial turf on sport fields first came into vogue with professional footfall leagues. Professional football teams leaned towards the product, particularly when creating new arenas with enclosed domes. The product offered a low-maintenance option to traditional grass fields, and it provided a durable playing surface that didn't seem to wear down easily with heavy traffic.

    New Injuries

    • The initial issues with artificial turf stemmed from the cushioning approach underneath the turf. The first fields in the 1960s and 1970s failed to consider the cushioning effect, and turf was laid over basic cement with very little in the way of an underlayment to address impact. Sand was a common fill material underneath turf. As a result, a whole new crop of injuries began to occur with teams using artificial turf. These included joint problems, impact damage, contortion problems with non-sliding material and more.

      The more common, less-serious problem with early fake turf contact was the blistering and friction burns that would occur when a player slid along the material in a fall.

    Second Generation

    • The next generation of artificial turf field began to appear in the 1990s. The significant difference was the use of polyethylene, which provided a less damaging material to slide on.

      The other major improvement was the introduction of rubber as an underlayment fill on new fields. This change from sand created a spongy feel that reduced impact damage, allowed a more springy feel, and better simulated the softness of real turf. As a result, sport injuries from artificial turf began to decrease.

    Underlayment

    • Rather than the fake carpet look of the early artificial turf fields, modern designs actually replicate grass blades to further dampen impact and provide a real turf field for traction. The rubber underlayment is provided by recycled tires. The old rubber is ground to small bits and then laid down as a cushion bed underneath the turf covering. While definitely improving the cushion feel, it's not uncommon to have little rubber bits come loose and stick to a player on a wet, rainy day on outside fields.

    Future

    • Artificial turf today has its place in sports. Some sports work well with the material, particularly running sports that can cause significant natural turf damage--such as football, rugby and soccer. However, other field sports, such as baseball, remain comfortable with dirt and natural turf.

      According to Joseph Blatter, president of FIFA--the international body that regulates soccer worldwide--eventually every country will convert to playing sports on artificial surfaces. So for those sports that benefit from the artificial field product, arena and field developers will continue to look for new ways to provide synthetic sport surfaces in the future, especially as communities move towards further green uses of landscape.