Richmond Opens Largest Single Artificial Turf Surface in North America with a 200-ball Kick-off
October 12, 2006
Richmond’s Hugh Boyd Artificial Turf Complex is a six acre, six field site – the largest single continuous playing artificial turf surface in North America, and it’s official opening kick-off is this weekend!
Everyone is welcome to come out and test the fields, located at the corner of No. 1 Road and Francis Road from 2:00 until 4:00 p.m. this Sunday, October 15, 2006. The official ceremony begins at 2:30 p.m. and will feature live entertainment, food, and activities hosted by players from local community field sports organizations.
In place of a traditional ribbon-cutting, the event will feature the simultaneous kick-off of 200 soccer balls to commemorate the opening of this new facility.
The event is held in partnership with the Richmond Soccer Alliance, an organization of 14 associations representing over 4,000 players ages 4 through 66. To date, the Richmond Soccer Alliance has contributed $250,000 towards the construction of the Hugh Boyd Artificial Turf Complex.
The Hugh Boyd Artificial Turf Complex is a home for soccer, a place for all outdoor field sports, and symbolic of the synergy and collaboration between the City of Richmond and local community field sport organizations, where everyone can play.
Background
- Hugh Boyd Park is the single largest artificial turf field in North America with over 6 Acres of continuous playing surface.
- The site is capable of hosting practices for 12 regular teams or roughly 200 players at any given time.
- Richmond is the first city to be the designer, general contractor, and contractor for the base construction, drainage systems, trades, concrete and landscaping works (according to Field Turf Inc.)
- It’s Richmond's Parks Division's single largest internal construction project to date and first to complete the civil works on time for the turf placement (according to FieldTurf Inc.)
- In only 14 weeks of construction time, City of Richmond employees from Parks and Engineering & Public Works took the project from concept to reality.
About FieldTurf
Marketed under the name FieldTurf, the system replicates a natural grass surface, but offers the durability and cost benefits of synthetic fields. FieldTurf is a safe alternative, resulting in a documented reduction of sports injuries. The sand and rubber infill system is the biggest technical development that the sport surfacing industry has seen in the last twenty-five years. This patented technology sets FieldTurf apart from all other sports surfaces. More information at www.fieldturf.com.
