Grass is used in a whole variety of sports across the globe, the majority of time if the sport is professional – the grass has to be tendered too in some sort of particular way. For example, in Golf the grass has to be very short on the greens, so that the ball runs the correct speed, and has to be longer on the fairways. Likewise, Football (soccer) has to have very groomed pitches to allow the ball to run at the normal game speed, to avoid twisting ankles and also to stop the ball bobbling. All sports have certain ways at which the ground has to be prepped before playing on them; this means large costs in maintenance. Now though, there have been developments in artificial grass that have made it a real contender for surfaces in many sports. Artificial grass is made up of multiple fibers to give it the look and feel of regular grass.
Currently, artificial grass hasn’t had a huge impact on professional sports yet. It has yet to break into the scene and become a more common surface – however it is used at a lot of schools etc for sports as it requires little upkeep costs. This means that it is yet to appear in any major tournament, though this is supposed to change with the next Woman’s FIFA World Cup that it being hosted in Canada. It has been planned that the majority of matches in this tournament will be carried out on an artificial surface, which is sure to be an insight in to how much more we see the alternative surface in the future. Artificial grass is said to feel similar to reel grass under the foot, and it made to react similarly to real grass when it comes in to contact with the ball (bounces the same and runs the same speed), so for the average user it probably won’t feel any different. However, professionals play at the highest level of the sport which means that the slightest of changes can make the biggest difference in performance. With that being said, it means that we will have to wait for professionals to give us their say on how viable it is for the top ends of sports.
Artificial grass offers a range of benefits – globally. From the fact that it requires little upkeep, right through to the fact that it makes all kinds of sports more accessible in countries where grass might otherwise not survive very well. This means in countries where it does not rain much it provides a quality playing surface to allow people to play on and train on. On top of this, for government schemes in multiple countries it means that despite the initial outlay of money to install artificial grass – it requires very little maintenance for the longevity that it provides, meaning it could actually offer schools and other academies good sports facilities. To find out more about pricings of artificial grass then you can find sites such as Forever Green Lawns or other artificial grass specialists.
On the other hand, it will never be able to truly replicate natural grass. As we all know, artificial products that are made never truly quite make the cut for how nature creates things itself – and grass might just be a perfect example of that. Simple things many of us can be guilty of complaining about with grass with regards to sports such as poor maintenance on some pitches or courses, help us to appreciate when a well-kept football pitch or golf course is used. The imperfections make sports all the more exciting.
The most important part to all sports are the fans, if the fans didn’t support then sports as we know them wouldn’t be around today. So maybe the single most important factor to how artificial grass progresses in world-wide sports is down to how it is perceived by the fans, whether or not they believe their favorite sports should take such a bold step forward in to the future. Only time will tell, though it is likely we will see all sorts of controversy around the subject in the near future.
