The Ullevi Stadium – One Year On!
It has been just over a year since we supplied the turf for the Ullevi Stadium in Gothenburg in Sweden and we are pleased to say the turf is looking good and performing well!
The Ullevi is Scandinavia’s biggest stadium and very busy, with 60 matches played over the year compared to around 25 in a premier UK club. The stadium had been experiencing problems with the quality of their turf and were changing it 3 or 4 times a year, which was a very costly and time consuming exercise.
The stadium sought the expertise of the British STRI (The Sports Turf Research Institute) to help them improve the quality of the pitch and they haven’t looked back. We supplied 8000m2 of specifically grown fibre reinforced turf, harvested at 40mm thick. Fibre reinforced turf is grown on imported sand rootzone, mixed with propylene fibres. This makes it strong and hard wearing, with improved wear tolerance, so it is ideal for sports pitches. Andy Cole from the STRI remarked on how the installation was a great success – “we specified County Turf’s Fibre reinforced turf for the Ullevi Stadium because after rigorous testing it fulfilled our criteria to provide for a heavily used surface. The reinforcement of the fibre turf provides excellent stability, playability and withstands intense wear and everyone is delighted with the results. As per normal, expectations of County Turf’s Fibreturf arrived in excellent condition over such a great distance to the credit of the growing, harvesting and logistics provided by the company. The biggest testimony to the quality of the turf is that now, still 1 year on, the surface is still playing as good as the day it was laid”. The turf was transported by ferry from Immingham to Gothenburg; it was one of our shortest delivery routes as we are only 20 miles from Immingham and the ferry terminal! However, it took 2 days for the turf to reach the stadium and required careful planning to ensure that it arrived in the best possible condition. Normally turf is cooled during transport, but as the temperature outdoors was 2oC, we needed to keep it warm instead! The whole load was covered with insulated fleecing to prevent it freezing and damaging the high quality turf. It all arrived in top condition and they are really pleased with the results; ‘We are satisfied customers and it plays better football’ said Jonas Georgssen, GP Arena Manager of the Ullevi Stadium.
It was great to be chosen to supply another European country and be involved with an international stadium like the Ullevi. We are pleased they are so happy with the results.’