The excitement surrounding the Super Bowl each year centers around the two teams playing each other. We know where the game is being played, but not always what exactly they’re playing on. West Coast Turf is honored to provide the turf for our 9th time, this year at Super Bowl LVII at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. The turf the teams play on is just as important to the game as whether the kicker gets the ball between the uprights and over the crossbar or biffs it and it goes wide right. Why? Let us tell you the part turf plays. 

Imagine Travis Kelce sliding past the defense into touchdown range. But his foot doesn’t get a good enough grip, there’s loose dirt and not healthy, lush grass. He loses his balance, doesn’t get the touchdown. Or worse, he twists his ankle and is out for the rest of the game. This is when you realize how crucial a roll the right turf plays in the Big Game. 

When the Super Bowl is played on natural grass, the NFL replaces the field. The practice started after Super Bowl XXVII at the Rose Bowl (Cowboys 52, Bills 17 — the Leon Lett game). Pasadena had been soaked with 16 inches of rain that January — nearly four times the average — and even with tarping, the NFL had to patch ruined pieces of the field. After that, the NFL started replacing the turf with sod grown especially for the game. That leaves just four or five weeks to tear out the old turf and install the new turf. There’s no grow-in time and it has to be ready to go. West Coast Turf holds the distinction of being unrivaled when it comes to growing Super Bowl quality grass. 

A football field takes up about an acre and a third of grass, or about 58,000 square feet. Including extra turf for sideline areas, and a little set aside for patches on game day, West Coast Turf harvested 75,000 square feet for the Super Bowl V field at Levi’s Stadium. On moving day, workers cut it into 40-by-3 1/2-foot strips. They rolled up each strip and ended up with 536 rolls, each one weighing 2,500 pounds. They loaded those onto 24 trucks and took them to Levi’s. The turf was off the ground for about four hours before being installed at the stadium. Special machines cut it and roll it up and lay it back down, meshing the pieces together.

So when you’re watching the big game on Sunday, if you don’t notice the turf that means we’ve done our job and all is working as it’s supposed to. Whether you’re rooting for the Eagles or the Chiefs, let’s all root for the turf. Visit our website for more information: https://www.westcoastturf.com/ 

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