The playing surface at Raymond James Stadium, considered one of the best maintained natural grass fields in the National Football League, will now be covered by a bermudagrass variety known as Celebration.
The new turfgrass was installed by Quality Turf L.C., of Lithia, Fla.
“Celebration’s color is darker green than typical bermudagrass varieties, it looks great with less water input and it’s dense; it will quickly mend any damage these players can dish out,” said Sammy Greenwood, senior farm manager of Quality Turf.
Celebration is said to be gaining popularity for sports fields across the country because of its rapid recovery characteristics and its low surface hardness. Surface hardness directly correlates with incidence of player injury. Another appealing feature of Celebration is its lower nitrogen needs. Celebration uses 50 percent less nitrogen than other bermudagrass varieties.
“Our priority is to consistently deliver the best playing surface to the athletes of the National Football League,” said Wayne Ward, assistant head groundskeeper for Raymond James Stadium. “We don’t rest on our laurels. Our staff is always looking for new ways to make improvements and with Celebration; we see potential to make what we believe to be an outstanding field, even better.”
Raymond James Stadium was ranked the second best grass field in the league behind only the Arizona Cardinals' University of Phoenix Stadium in a 2008 survey of NFL players.