Article code: 32-060
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PanStadia International Quarterly Report: Volume 3 No 2, January 1996.


[PITCH SYSTEMS]


A DREAM COME TRUE


The opening of the Amsterdam Arena is set to see
the introduction of a totally new concept in field management -
a pitch that is guaranteed to be perfect. BRUCE SMITH reports.



Close your eyes and imagine this - a natural grass sports facility which can stage up to 100 non-sporting events a year and still guarantee 30 top class soccer matches on an unrivalled grass surface. A dream? No, in August this year at the Amsterdam Arena it is all set to come true.

Stadium Amsterdam, as it was originally known, grew out of the need for a new national stadium to replace the ageing Dutch Olympic Stadium and to provide a home worthy of the World and European soccer champions Ajax. Built across a motorway and on top of a two-storey car park, the 52,000 capacity stadium features a fully retractable roof. The facility claims to be the most futuristic ever built - with good reason.

Venue Revenue Services (VRS) - a subsidiary of Terraplas plc, a British company world famous for their Turf Protection System - have come up with a package that is due to secure them the most prestigious contract in world stadium new build. VRS have combined the Prescription Athletic Turf (PAT) controlled environment natural turf system with the Terraplas turf protection system and coupled these with a guaranteed maintenance and floor management package. This package incorporates a computer operated controlled environment turf pitch and expert on-site backup.

Like so many advances that take place, it was the marriage of two separate innovations born on either side of the Atlantic that gelled with the right mix of personnel from a variety of disciplines. These factors combined to make the system possible and are proving to be an irresistable choice for Amsterdam Arena.

Pitch Watch

The story of how this all came about is intriguing in itself. The œ100 million project was required to house a variety of non-field events. In particular it was expected to be a world stage for major music events including rock and classical concerts and operas - an area where the Netherlands had been lagging behind the rest of Europe.

However, the prime field event was to be soccer. The Royal Dutch FA required a venue worthy of their ever-improving national side and a fitting final venue for the European Championships to be jointly staged with Belgium in the year 2000.

Ajax's own 19,000 seat stadium with its woeful facilities hardly did justice to its outstanding team. The prime requirement for the new arena was a perfect playing surface, so much so that they insisted that it had to be guaranteed.

This created tremendous problems as it was recognised that the roof construction reduced light to the field and it was also felt there would be a lack of air movement making perfect turf difficult to grow and maintain. Coupled to these problems was the financial need for the arena to host many non-sports events which would further trouble the grass. For these reasons the project managers for Amsterdam Arena - Heidemij Realisatie, a major Dutch corporation - were instructed to do a feasibility study on putting a removable pitch into the arena.

The original concept for the removable pitch came from the system used in the Pontiac Silverdome for the 1993 US Cup and 1994 World Cup. Although much attention was given to this pitch by the media it was only designed to be taken out and reassembled a few times and at a cost of some œ250,000 on each occasion. After the World Cup group games it made way for the Detroit Lions' normal synthetic surface.

The practical problems in implementing a multi-use removable field became ever more apparent. Ultimately, the project manager for Amsterdam Arena realised that the technology required to implement the growth, effective transportation and management of a fully removable pitch was not readily available. Although they realised that a makeshift system might be possible, it would prove to be a high risk venture, expensive to implement, and the perfect pitch guarantees required by Amsterdam Arena and Ajax simply couldn't be met. As the autumn of 1995 approached the idea of the removable pitch was dropped and a new solution was sought. That was when VRS entered the scene.

Mind Meld

Early in 1995, when a removable pitch was still being planned for the Amsterdam Arena, Miami's magnificent Joe Robbie Stadium (JRS) had just undergone a multi-million dollar overhaul of its playing surface. The surface churned up by the Dolphins football side was stripped and was replaced not just with a surface but with a concept field system called Prescription Athletic Turf - or PAT.

PAT is based on a closed system design and it incorporates a highly effective sub-irrigation and water conservation system using the latest sensor technology linked to computers running custom software. These computers monitor and control the root zone environment to ensure that moisture content remains at optimum levels for growth. The subsurface includes a unique vacuum chamber system connected to the drain matrix so that excess water can be forcibly displaced at a rate of nearly 100,000 gallons an hour. The implementation also allows the field to be perfectly flat.

The first test of the new surface at JRS was not as home field for the Florida Marlins baseball team - the new Major League season was still a couple of weeks off - but to provide terra firma for ten of thousands of fans as Elton John and Billy Joel came to town. To the uninitiated it have would seemed to have created a million dollar headache for the stadium management team but the value of the Terraplas turf protection system was already well known to them.

Turf Protection

Affectionately known as the Venue of Legends, few would argue that Wembley provides one of the best playing surfaces in the world. However, it is a little known fact that Wembley Stadium is also the busiest outdoor concert stadium in the world, often holding in excess of 15 events a year each lasting two, three, four and even five days. With the need to provide an effective turf protection system the

concept of Terraplas was conceived. A translucent plastic tile system, Terraplas underwent two years of testing to ensure the product was perfect before the Stadium took delivery of the system in 1991. The system was supplied as two metre square interlocking panels and is easy to fit. It takes less than a day to install and remove and has numerous additional features.

These rather significant facts were largely unknown to the likes of Joe Motz, whose Motz Group had acquired the rights and patent to the Prescription Athletic Turf system some two years earlier. Robert Else, the chairman of Terraplas, was in Miami to see the new installation and at the time recalled the mild state of panic that had set in when the Motz people found out that their new field was about to spend nearly a week under cover. "Their first thought seemed to be to increase the level of irrigation to apply maximum moisture for what they thought was going to be a period of intense drying out under the tiles."

However, the design of Terraplas didn't require this as it allows the passage of air, light and water thus eliminating any possibility of turf yellowing. Far from damaging the grass, Terraplas acts like a greenhouse and actually promotes good grass growth. The addition of the extra irrigant in itself posed a potential problem which was when Else got his first sight of the PAT system. "By using the array of irrigation pipes and the vacuum chamber, the Motz people were able to siphon off the excess water. Indeed once the Terraplas was down and installed by a combination of adjusting water levels and temperature at root level, we found we had almost total control over the grass and its rate of growth."

They also found that by using the large vacuum tank they could pull air through the root zone and provide oxygen to keep the roots healthy. This was to become particularly important for the Amsterdam installation due to its lack of air movement.

Chief executive officer Joe Motz was flabbergasted when he saw for himself that the pristine nature of his pitch had been maintained. The duplex event that had seen the pitch play temporary host to over 10,000 seats over two days, passed by without a scratch to the pitch which was cleared and ready for field events just a day later. Inevitably, Else was asked to represent the PAT system outside the US due to his knowledge and contacts with stadia worldwide. His thoughts were already turning towards a system of total pitch control.

Else wanted to investigate the possibilities further and was much helped when Steve Tingley, the former Wembley head groundsman, agreed to join VRS as technical director. Tingley's vast wealth of experience gained at Wembley and as a hired-trouble-shooter at stadia around the globe places him in an elite group of world turf experts. In one stroke it provided Else with the credibility required for VRS to devise and maintain a total event surface.

VRS immediately set about putting the potential into a practical package. One of the first items on its agenda was to take the sand based sod system used by PAT and integrate it with a man-made turf grid to add further stability to cope with the heavier European climate.

A closed loop soil heating system was designed to operate through the system's drainage and sub-irrigation matrix for the distribution of heated water. The system computer was also modified to provide automated root zone temperature management thereby ensuring no cancellation of games due to a frozen pitch.

Movable Objects

By the time that Heidemij Realisatie had concluded that the much vaunted removable pitch was a non-starter, the VRS turf maintenance and floor management scenarios had been completed. Having heard on the grapevine of the pending difficulties, Else and Tingley had arrived in Amsterdam to meet with Peter Van Suydam, the head of the Heidemij Realisatie management team.

Else takes up the story, "All of our groundwork and preparation proved worthwhile. By showing what had been achieved at other stadia with PAT and Terraplas and the fact that we had one of the biggest names in turf management aboard went a long way in our favour.

The capability of having up to 100 non-sports event days and a saving of well over œ2 million on the cost of a removable pitch meant that the VRS package had to be the solution to Amsterdam Arena's problem.

The next stage required VRS to complete a full proposal for the installation and management package. It was presented to Heidemij Realisatie a week later. As the new year dawned the spotlight turned back to the Joe Robbie Stadium where the directors of Amsterdam Arena and Ajax FC were taken to examine the facility in Miami and see at first hand the full PAT installation. The visit also provided the opportunity for the directors to talk to the JRS staff and solicit their views on the combination of PAT and Terraplas.

VRS and Heidemij Realisatie are now moving at full speed to ensure that everything is in place for the August opening. With construction apace on the PAT system, the seed for the turf should be sown towards the end of April. An extra 10,000 square metres of turf is also being grown outside the stadium to provide a backup area.

New software and a modem link will enable the VRS head office to monitor pitch sensor readings remotely and, aided by a close circuit video system, have day to day remote visual monitoring. Ongoing maintenance will be carried out by VRS and Heidemij staff under the supervision of Steve Tingley who will also oversee the floor management when the arena is being used for non-sports activities.

Heidemij Realisatie, who have themselves constructed and look after a number of pitches in Holland, were so impressed with the VRS package that they now exclusively represent VRS in Holland. They will be actively marketing the package of PAT, Terraplas and VRS maintenance and floor management. VRS and Heidemij will be jointly managing the installation and maintenance on all future PAT sites in the Netherlands.

Meeting Points

In being able to meet the stipulations, requirements and guarantees laid down by Amsterdam Arena, VRS had to stipulate a number of rules of their own. First and foremost was that the stadium roof would be left retracted on all occasions when the arena was not actively being used as an indoor centre - thus enabling as much sunlight and natural ventilation to the surface as possible. In addition to this, there should be 14 clear days before the start of each playing season to allow for pitch preparation, assuming that the field had been used extensively during the close season.

The package of PAT, Terraplas and VRS maintenance and floor management offers Amsterdam Arena a unique opportunity to be a truly multi-functional facility with guaranteed turf grass condition. Whilst the elements are all individually proven over many years at venues around the world, the unique feature which will set Amsterdam Arena apart is that they have come together under a central management point to provide a guaranteed product.

This, the ultimate in turnkey systems, has the additional benefit of allowing the Amsterdam Arena management team the time to spend on promoting almost full-time use of the Arena without having to worry about grass conditions for forthcoming sports events. With the freedom of mind to concentrate on making Amsterdam Arena a huge financial success the eyes of the world be on VRS's package which looks to be a dream guaranteed.



Bruce Smith is an award winning journalist and author of over 150 books. He can be emailed at BruceSmithBooks@MSN.com.