SPORTS SURFACES
BOSCH REXROTH
SURFACE VALUES
New turf technology that enables sports venues to easily
remove and store its playing surface can help owners
generate additional revenue by hosting multiple events
located anywhere on-site, whether below the stands,
outside the arena or in an extra building.
Perfect fi t
StadiaPitch, which is a joint initiative between Bosch
Rexroth, STRI, Hydro and Nutcracker AS, is not only
focused on maximizing the benefits of the storage
chamber approach, but also ensuring the engineering
of the turf modules are pitch perfect. The edges of each
turf module must crucially fit together with
imperceptible connections, they also need to be
sufficiently strong and flexible to withstand whatever
action or weather comes their way.
Based on extensive experience in the control and
movement of heavy loads, the Rexroth team proposed
the use of autonomous, fully automated lifting vehicles
to move the trays between the stadium and the growth
chambers via the main access to the playing area.
Equipped with an extensive range of state-of-the-art
sensors and drive and control technologies, these
vehicles can each lift up to 40 tonnes and move in
any direction at speeds of up to 3m/s without the risk
of collisions with stadium walls, people or vehicles
moving nearby, or each other. Most importantly they
can reposition the modules to accuracies of ±2mm.
While R&D continues to be fine-tuned, the
technology shows to stadium owners worldwide the
potential of a perfect and natural playing surface that
can be removed on-demand to create new revenuemaking
opportunities. The need to protect the pitch
has often prevented sports stadia from staging other
revenue-making events, but a modern solution is found
with StadiaPitch. ■
major sports stadium that only opens for
a single type of event is a wasted
opportunity for its owners. These multimillion
dollar buildings have all the
prerequisites to host a range of multiple
events, and can offer additional revenue generation for
its owner and the stadium’s surrounding area.
A stadium is built to hold tens of thousands of
people, it has on-site facilities, is compliant with health
and safety requirements, and typically has good
transport links. They are perfectly setup to hold any
number of events. Hosting music concerts is an ideal
use case, while the ability to transform its field of play
can also stage other sports or motorsport events, such
as speedway or even monster truck festivals. All of
these events are highly attractive to stadium owners
as they have the potential to sell thousands of tickets
while also gaining revenue from car parking, food
and beverage sales, and other merchandise.
Yet despite of all this, some sport venues see no
activity for hundreds of days over the year and miss
out on potential additional income. One main reason
for this is due to the risk of damage to the turf, which
needs time to recover after each game.
Converting the turf safely and effectively is
therefore the key to opening up a stadium to a world
of other uses. StadiaPitch is a smart solution that allows
the playing surface to be removed between fixtures,
revealing a concrete sub-surface on which other events
can safely take place.
The technology divides the field into 192 trays of
real turf, measuring 14 x 29ft (4.5 x 9m). When in use,
the playing surface is seamless, with no joins visible to
the crowd or to the athletes playing upon it.
When the turf trays aren’t in use, they’re then stored
in climate-controlled growth chambers, where the right
lighting, temperature, ventilation, humidity and
irrigation is provided to keep the grass in optimum
health. For extra flexibility, the storage area can be
(Above) A turf conversion
system divides a pitch into trays
to allow the surface to be easily
removed between fi xtures
FREE READER INQUIRY SERVICE
BOSCH REXROTH
To learn more about this advertiser, visit
www.magupdate.co.uk/psta NOW!
www.stadia-magazine.com Showcase 2020 161
/psta
/www.stadia-magazine.com
/psta
/www.stadia-magazine.com