The second installment of Sportico’s Turf Wars series examines the business decisions made when choosing natural or artificial turf for an NFL facility.
The NFL built the world’s most valuable activities league mostly via forced consistency. Teams split their most income equally, offer all of their media rights as a single object, and each franchise abides by the same hard pay cap. It’s unlike any other big U. S. category.
The playing surface itself, one of the most fundamental elements of the game, is a stark topic for NFL companies to discuss. The majority of the league’s teams compete on healthy grass, which is produced in various varieties grown in various regions of the nation. The other half works on artificial turf, which is produced by various businesses all over the world.
The problem has reached a head in recent years as a result of a long-standing conflict between owners and players. People largely prefer grass—92 % of them, according to the NFLPA. The players claim that it is more comfortable for them and that it reduces the number of major injuries they cause. The “easiest choice the NFL is make,” according to union executive director Lloyd Howell from last year. The looming 2026 people’s World Cup, where 11 NFL facilities did all fit grass fields, threatens to further ignite the conversation.
Users have their own desires. In the midst of the flurry of non-NFL events at stadiums that contribute tens of millions to the bottom lines of some franchises, grass is slightly more expensive on its face and it’s much more difficult ( perhaps impossible ) to maintain. Additionally, the group and the union disagree on the link between artificial turf and accidents.
Over the next week, Sportico may tear down the NFL’s ‘ Turf Wars,’ one knife at a time. On Wednesday, we’ll examine the economy for users. On Thursday, we examine the heath and legal problems. Over the weekend we’ll look ahead to the research being done to further improve the areas in the next ten years, and on Friday we’ll account some of the leading firms in the field of playing fields.
But second, here’s what the NFL is doing right now. The team’s Field Surface Safety &, Performance Committee, comprised of members from the NFL, NFLPA and outdoor authorities, is working to create some continuity across the team’s many different playing areas. The six-person party, which dates back to 2016, is trying to “give us the best possible solution for our players and our followers come activity day”, according to Nick Pappas, the NFL’s area director.
That includes creating new testing equipment, encouraging innovation for both natural grass and artificial turf, and creating the league’s first set of established guidelines for what an NFL field should be. Soccer and rugby have established guidelines for the field composition and performance standards. The NFL does not.
” The challenge for us is that our athletes are unique—we’ve got some of the biggest, fastest, strongest athletes in the world”, Pappas said in an interview. ” We could n’t just go grab FIFA’s Quality Programme standard or the World Rugby standard. It does n’t work for our game, and it does n’t work for our athletes. We must begin from scratch.
According to Pappas and others in the NFL, the goal is to rehabilitate the model that the organization used to overhaul helmet safety and innovation over the past ten years. The league’s Head, Neck and Spine Committee, a collaboration with the union, has pushed to change rules, surveyed players and analyzed data. The league then published new standards and distributed millions in grants to businesses that could improve helmet performance. The league and union currently rank helmets each year for players, position by position.
For playing surfaces, some early progress was unveiled in the past month. The league made a$ 100, 000 grant announcement last week to two organizations whose technology could improve field consistency. Additionally, the league and union recently contributed to the creation of a brand-new” strike device,” which, according to Pappas, provides detailed information about how a field absorbs energy.
The strike device will be included in the currently fairly limited gameday field requirements. Teams are required by the league and union for more than a decade to submit to a gameday certification that primarily evaluates the toughness of the natural grass or artificial turf. This certification is required every Sunday. There are also grass-specific metrics ( such as moisture and shear strength ) and artificial turf-specific metrics ( such as infill depth ), that the league keeps an eye on.
Soon, however, the NFL is hoping to have a much more comprehensive, consistent approach to both surfaces. It has n’t fully recovered from the controversy over which is more appropriate for a league with annual revenues of roughly$ 20.5 billion, though it’s unlikely to do so.
” Moving forward, we want to work with the sod farmers, and we want to work with the]artificial turf ] manufacturers within the framework of an NFL standard”, Pappas said. ” If you guys can grow grass to this standard, and our field managers can manage it to that standard, fantastic. And if you want to be an artificial manufacturer, get your product in front of us, let’s look at them and test them”.