Natural grass to be laid over hybrid pitch at Sports Hub

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SportsHub Pte Ltd (SHPL) has decided that the pitch at the National Stadium will be all-natural grass.

However, it will not be removing the existing hybrid turf. Instead, the new pitch will be laid out on top of it. SHPL said it would bear the cost of implementing the new turf solution.

In May, SportsHub's outgoing senior director of stadia Greg Gillin said the hybrid grass solution was durable and cost-effective, compared to lay-and-play natural grass surfaces. But the turf failed to flourish, drawing criticisms.

Now SportsHub has had a change of heart - it will implement a lay-and-play solution to solve its turf woes, ahead of the SEA Games in June next year.

In a statement on Saturday (Dec 20), SportsHub said the grass took too long to sink roots and is not robust enough for multi-purpose, intensive usage. It has now decided to grow a natural pitch in a plant nursery.

SportsHub added that the lay-and-play solution has been adopted successfully in many stadiums around the world, and tested in major events such as the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, and the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

But one expert asked if this was a good idea. Ronald Fream, founder of Golfplan - Dale & Ramsey Golf Course Architecture, said: "You don't want to have the old grass underneath. They will have a stadium where the guys are breaking their ankles and twisting their legs because the grass is slipping off the surface."