The History of Artificial Grass - Home - Gardening

Artificial grass may have only been around for less than fifty years, but it has changed the way sports are played in many countries around the world and is becoming increasingly common in domestic lawns and gardens. The material has had its critics during its fairly brief history, but is today recognised as a satisfactory substitute for grass at some of the worlds biggest sports stadiums.The first artificial turf was created by American researcher David Chaney in the early 1960s and was made from synthetic fibres meant to replicate the look and feel of grass. This new material, which was hard-wearing and did not require expensive watering, became very popular in the parched South and West of the USA and sparked a boom of indoor football and baseball arenas.Artificial grass gained in popularity all over America, and by the early 1970s had become one of the most common playing surfaces at stadiums all over in the USA. The synthetic surface allowed balls to bounce higher an d travel further than on natural grass, which made fast-paced games like American Football even more exciting. However, the concrete that underlay the artificial pitches offered less give than the soil under natural grass and players found that they were more likely to pick up injuries.Although very common in the USA since its invention, artificial grass was slower to take hold in Europe, due in part to the surface developing a bad reputation amongst sports fans and players. In the early and mid-1980s, several English football clubs installed artificial pitches which were soon dubbed 'plastic pitches'. Many came to believe that the pitches increased the risk of injury to players and lowered the quality of the football being played, leading the English FA to ban them in 1988.Over the rest of the 1980s and the following decades, advances in artificial grass technology led to a much greater parity between synthetic and artificial surfaces, with artificial pitches showing distin ct advantages in areas such as Northern Europe where heavy winter rains can reduce natural grass to a sea of mud. Over the last decade, FIFA and UEFA have been involved in developing a new generation of artificial grass designed especially with football in mind. This technology is now being adopted all over Europe and the rest of the world.Such is the level of widespread acceptance that artificial grass has now achieved, it is used in some of the world's most prestigious stadiums, including the new Wembley Stadium in London. After numerous attempts to lay a hard-wearing natural playing surface, the arena's owners turned to an artificial pitch, used for the first time in the 2010 football Community Shield game between Chelsea and Manchester United. Since then, the new pitch has been played on by the England international squad in the qualifying campaign for the 2012 European Championships and it will soon host the football final at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

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