Super Bowl 2023: What kind of grass does State Farm Stadium have?
When the field is moved out on a large tray, the stadium becomes an arena that can be used for other non-football-related events.
State Farm Stadium in Arizona hosts Super Bowl 57 when the Kansas City Chiefs face the Philadelphia Eagles.
The turf at the stadium for Sunday’s showdown has been growing at a local sod farm for the last 18 months. The grass is moved out on a daily basis for a blast of sunshine and at 6pm is rolled back in to protect it from the cold temperatures overnight.
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When the field is moved out on a large tray, the stadium becomes an arena that can be used for other non-football-related events.
The field tray is operated by a control box, where an operator pushes a button every 30 seconds to keep the field moving. It takes approximately 60 minutes to move the field in and out of the stadium.
Over 600 rolls of sod (40-feet long and 3½-feet wide), with a weight of about 1,600 pounds, were laid on the field tray by over 30 people.
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What type of grass does State Farm Stadium have?
The turf is Tahoma 31. Tahoma 31 is a hybrid of two types of Bermuda grasses and rye grass and was developed at Oklahoma State University and monitored by Dr. Yanqi Wu, who started the process of creating it in 2006.
The Super Bowl turf was grown in Scottsdale, Arizona, at West Coast Turf, about 45 miles east of the stadium where this year’s Super Bowl will be played.
NFL field director, Ed Mangan, wanted grass that could withstand one week’s worth of rehearsals for the pre-game, half-time and post-game shows.
“With that extra pressure comes extra things that we need to do,” Mangan says. “We can’t call time out and say, ‘Wait, push the game back.’ The game is coming. It’s on this day and it’s going to happen. Kickoff at 4:30 [MST], like it or not, so we have to be ready.”