I went to Singapore from the end of 2013 to work at the Singapore National Stadium (the photos used in this article are all photos of the Singapore National Stadium that I took at work). Until I returned to China at the end of 2015, I witnessed the development of a super building. From nothing to something, I have been involved in a lot of work. Some people will ask why you gave up this job.
I want to tell you that it is not easy to manage such a comprehensive multi-functional stadium, so I have faced many difficulties and challenges just in the lawn area in the stadium that I am responsible for. . Oh, by the way, I am the assistant turf director of the stadium, but I am solely responsible for the turf maintenance of the football field. After all, the director also needs to manage other internal facilities of the entire venue.
Let’s stop the digression. Although I don’t know whether I am qualified or not, at the invitation of a friend, I came here to join in the fun and talk about the management of natural turf in professional football fields. I just wrote down my humble opinion. If there are any inappropriateness or shortcomings, please forgive me.
The management of natural turf planted in professional football fields is still a big problem, so I will compare football fields and golf courses and talk about my personal experience and feelings.
The special characteristics of football field turf. The difference between football field turf and golf course turf is very big. It took me almost half a year to really transform my concept of managing a golf course into that of managing a football field, let alone compare it with other lawns.
Anyone who has played golf or has been exposed to golf, or anyone who makes golf lawns, knows that the main function of a golf course is to provide entertainment, with the purpose of allowing golfers to easily play a hitting game. This game is a game that any ordinary person can play, regardless of the professional competition. In other words, you only need to give him a piece of lawn, and he can play golf. Strictly speaking, it means that the golf course lawn must be brought to a certain level to a standard recognized by golfers. This standard is not uniform and immeasurable, and each golf course is different. Therefore, golf lawns are relatively extensive compared to football field lawns.
Football field lawns are particularly high-end and professional football field lawns are more than just a lawn. I have also played football. You may say that if you are given a lawn, you can also play football. Then you are talking about a lawn, not a football field. The function of a high-end football field itself is to provide a professional-level high-level competition venue. The purpose is essentially to obtain a final game result. The quality and standard of this field will largely affect this result.
So we have standards for this venue, and the standards are unified. For example, the Premier League has unified venue standards, and the Champions League also has unified venue standards. Only by unifying the standards in this way will the game be fair, because among the factors that determine the outcome of the event, the venue will be a unified and fair factor, and then the factors that determine the fate of the event will be more reflected in the players. On the body. Therefore, the sports on the football field are intense and involve strong confrontation, which requires very high quality of the lawn. The venue committee will confirm whether the venue can be used for competitions.
On a golf course, the details we pay attention to are different from those on a football field. Taking a high-end golf course as an example, we will pay attention to the coordination of details of the entire course and focus on different points. We will need the venue to be clean and tidy, the lawn to be beautiful, the lawns in different areas of the venue to be mowed to appropriate heights, and the boundaries of each grass area to be clear. Only on the greens will there be a need for speed and softness.
We are not like a football field, where we need to consider the softness and hardness of the field, the grip the lawn can provide to the players, the cutting height and toughness of the turf grass, the trimming stripes and color of the lawn, and more importantly, the drainage capacity of the football field. Golf courses also need good drainage capabilities, but that is in terms of maintenance. Good drainage is conducive to lawn maintenance. After all, most people will not play golf when it rains and water accumulates. The football field is different. When it rains, we need to ensure a dry enough venue so that the game can continue as much as possible without being interrupted.
In addition, the golf course is a long-term venue, and the activities it handles are single, only relatively leisure golf. At the same time, these grasses are grown and maintained under natural conditions. The environmental conditions are much better than those of the football fields in the stadiums (even for other non-special purpose lawns), and the quality of the lawns can be guaranteed. We also need to ensure a good enough football field lawn, which requires artificially creating environmental conditions to promote the growth of the lawn.
For example, using artificial light to promote growth, using large industrial fans to circulate the air in the stadium, etc. Although the football field is also a long-term venue, its number of renovations will be much higher than that of a golf course or other lawns. In addition to extremely fierce competitive sports, it will also deal with other large-scale events, such as concerts or track and field events, etc. These large-scale events will cause great damage to the venue, so necessary renovations are required, and golf course renovations can take as short as 5 to 10 years.
The football field is just a lawn of about 8,000 square meters, but this lawn is indeed special, and everything that happens on this lawn will be spread around the world through the media. Therefore, the construction of the venue and the selection of turf grass will affect this 8,000-square-meter lawn, the level of events held here, and the ease of future maintenance of this lawn.