Why Use Artificial Turf Sports Pitches

Any time the debate between those who espouse the use of natural grass sports pitches and those who lean in favour of artificial turf pops up, there are the hard core naturalists. They do make a good point too, in that there is just “something” about the “look, smell, and feel” of natural turf that will never be 100% replicated by anything man made.

So it can be difficult to argue with them, until you realize one simple fact. That is that artificial turf was developed for good reasons and as it has moved along those reasons have only continued to be more validated. So then just what are some of the reasons that more people than ever before are passing on natural turf in favour of artificial turf?

Now all cost savings aside, today's more advanced artificial turf is a far better, more improved product than sports pitch coverings of, say ten or twenty years ago. Hence, a lot of “natural turf folks” just don't know this, so as they debate they really are presenting outdated and obsolete facts. In short, today's artificial turf is a far superior product than many people may know.

Then on to cost savings, and to begin with artificial sports pitches don't have to be mowed and that makes for a huge savings in labour right there. Then again, because they don't have to be mowed there is no more need for a mower, gas to run it, and a shop to keep and maintain it in.

Then there is the additional cost savings in water and fertilizers that no longer have to be paid for and also no more fertilizer laden run off into to the local water shed, if that matters to you at all. Now even if you don't use metered water that doesn’t mean that you always will because the trend in metering water only continues to spread.

Artificial sports pitches also stand up far better under heavy use and there is also no need for any type of maintenance and recover period as is so often required with natural turf that has undergone heavy use. What this means, is that after even the most toughly contested event in wet weather, it's ready for use the morning of the next day or that evening.

Also on the same topic of wet weather, artificial turf sports pitches stand up to and deliver performance so much better in rainy conditions than you can expect from natural turf. Face the facts and that is that just one heavy rain shower can turn a natural turf sports pitch into mush for the entire day.

On the other hand, as long as players and spectators don't mind the water, rain has virtually no effect on the performance level of an artificial sports pitch. Still one more plus when the field is wet, is that players aren't left covered in unsightly mud and grass stains like they are when they play on a wet natural turf field.