Hybrid solutions

Hybrid turf systems have been widely used in elite sports for more than two decades. Increasingly, they are also being used in grassroots and community settings

ybrid sports pitches are the playing surface of choice in professional football. Most clubs in the top two tiers of English football play on one, while nearly all major football finals over the past decade have been played on hybrid surfaces – a mixture of natural grass supported by artificial fibres. The idea with a hybrid surface is that you stitch synthetic fibres into the base of a grass pitch to hold the root zone together. The natural grass then grows around the fibres, anchoring it and creating greater consistency and stability in the playing surface. The system allows an increased number of playing hours, along with faster recovery of the surface between usage.

As well as increased endurance, another benefit of the hybrid turf system is its appearance. Even when the natural grass wars down, the pitch will still look good to both spectators and to TV cameras due to the green synthetic fibres showing through the surface.

The resilience of hybrid systems allows the pitch to be used more often – and also copes better than 100% natural turf when non-sporting events are held on it. For professional clubs, this means an opportunity to generate additional revenue.

At grassroots level, the additional hours of usage can provide significant community use above and beyond a club’s match play usage, benefitting sports development at the facility. As the emergence of new, more cost-effective hybrid systems has brought the price of some systems down, hybrid pitches are predicted to become increasingly popular in grassroots and community settings too.

From a usage point of view, the benefits are clear. While a good quality grass pitch can only sustain around six hours of use a week, hybrid pitches can be played – depending on the system – from around 10 to 20 hours per week. Still short of the 80 hours a week that a fully synthetic pitch can be played on, but a significant improvement.