A retractable roof introduces another option into the design of a stadium: What type of field?
While a fixed dome calls for artificial turf, a retractable roof opens the possibility of natural grass. Of the four NFL teams with retractable-roof stadiums, two (Texans and Cardinals) play on grass and two (Cowboys and Colts) on artificial turf.
The Falcons haven’t made the grass-or-turf choice for their proposed retractable-roof stadium.
“We haven’t gotten far enough in the design to say,” team president Rich McKay said recently. “A retractable roof has proven to be a big challenge for grass, but everybody starts with the idea that we’d like to have grass if we can.”
The Cardinals and Texans have had to go to extraordinary lengths for natural grass.
The Cardinals’ rollout grass field — essentially a retractable field — is placed inside the stadium for games and parked outside to bask in sunlight on other days. The Texans’ field is assembled from eight-square-foot trays of grass and replaced periodically during the season with fresh trays grown nearby.
“Even having as large an opening in the roof as Houston, it still (creates) enough shade that it’s like having grass growing under a tree,” said John Dixon, executive vice president of Manhattan Construction, which built Reliant Stadium in Houston and Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Tex.
“You definitely want to explore the option (of grass), but you’d have to make sure you can consistently produce the turf the players are comfortable with,” McKay said. “That is a work in progress with respect to (retractable-roof) stadiums today.”
If the proposed Falcons stadium is built and if the team opts for artificial turf, McKay noted that grass could be brought in for events that require it, as the Georgia Dome has done for soccer.
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