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Tremendous Bowl LVIII might be performed on a pure grass area in an indoor stadium in Las Vegas on February 11, 2024. How do you retain a grass area vibrant in such a hostile rising setting just like the Nevada desert?
The reply: You don’t. By the tip of the common NFL season, paint was used to camouflage the fact that just a few scant patches of grass remained in Allegiant Stadium, residence to the Las Vegas Raiders. Instantly after the Raiders’ final recreation on January 7, 2024, the sector crew ripped up the remaining grass, put in California-grown sod over three days, and commenced the tedious means of protecting the grass alive lengthy sufficient for the massive recreation.
Herculean efforts to organize a vibrant pure grass area for 2024’s Tremendous Bowl LVIII are particularly questionable when one realizes that Allegiant Stadium additionally has an synthetic turf enjoying floor out there (utilized by UNLV Soccer). Why don’t groups in hostile environments change to extra sturdy synthetic turf, which is designed to beat the numerous limitations of pure grass fields?
The reply lies in a debate over the security of artificial enjoying surfaces. Whereas synthetic turf producers tout analysis that their merchandise end in fewer accidents, the NFL Gamers Affiliation (NFLPA) claims it raises harm danger and is advocating for its use to be abolished within the NFL. Let’s discover some key arguments of this debate, which continues to seize headlines with every high-profile NFL harm.
Tremendous Bowl gridirons
Strain for NFL area managers is particularly excessive following the embarrassingly poor area situations of final 12 months’s Tremendous Bowl. Tremendous Bowl LVII befell at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona—one other pure grass area within the desert (with a retractable roof, closed at night time to defend the grass). Regardless of two years of preparation and an $800,000 funding, the grass area was a catastrophe, as gamers struggled to seek out footing on its slippery floor.
Veteran NFL groundskeeper George Toma attributed the mess to woefully improper area preparation. Gamers additionally complained in regards to the slipping subject the earlier time the Tremendous Bowl was hosted on the pure grass area in State Farm Stadium eight years prior for Tremendous Bowl XLIX in 2015. That 12 months, the poor traction was blamed on the inexperienced paint used on the grass.
For perspective, a few of the finest sports activities area managers within the nation oversee area preparations for the Tremendous Bowl. Nonetheless, sustaining pure grass in desert situations is so unfavorable (particularly when the grass is usually indoors) that even one of the best can mess it up.
None of those points existed when the Tremendous Bowl was final performed on synthetic turf. Tremendous Bowl LVI in 2022 was held at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, residence to each the Los Angeles Rams and Chargers. Not solely did the substitute turf stand as much as double the workload throughout the common season (internet hosting residence video games for the LA Rams and the LA Chargers), but it surely additionally withstood a busy playoff season. The substitute turf area at SoFi Stadium hosted NFL video games via the common season and proper as much as the final playoff recreation when the LA Rams beat the San Francisco 49ers. Two weeks later, the Rams ended up successful Tremendous Bowl LVI on the exact same floor.
Whereas turf avoids the sturdiness points seen with grass surfaces, gamers have widespread considerations about its security—a current ballot by the NFLPA reported 92 % of gamers favored grass.
