Gillette Stadium, home to the NFL’s New England Patriots and the MLS’s New England Revolution, recently completed the installation of a new FieldTurf Core system with multi-layer dual-polymer monofilament fiber. Gillette Stadium first installed a FieldTurf surface during the 2006 season. This season will mark the 19th consecutive season Gillette Stadium has featured FieldTurf’s top surfaces.
“FieldTurf has been trusted at Gillette Stadium for almost 20 years, and we’re happy to see that tradition continue with this latest installation,” said Jim Nolan, chief operating officer of Kraft Sports + Entertainment.
The FieldTurf Core synthetic turf system at Gillette Stadium, which has been tested and certified to the FIFA Quality Pro standard, features the company’s heavyweight infill design. In addition, it also leverages FieldTurf’s unique wide-gauge design (the distance between the rows of stitched fibers), which delivers leading cleat release times.
Core’s performance and durability are backed by multiple independent certified sources. The system was tested to 200,000 cycles on the fiber wear test by Penn State’s Center for Sports Surface Research.
“With close to 20 years of collaboration, we’ve been proud to be trusted by Gillette Stadium and the two historic sports franchises that call it home,” said Eric Daliere, president of Tarkett North America & Tarkett Sports. “We look forward to continuing this relationship, which is based on a combination of world-class sports surfacing solutions and a shared vision of success by everyone involved.”
Part of FieldTurf’s Sustain the Game program, the replacement will also see the aged FieldTurf system recycled by separating the infill from the carpet at one of the company’s specialized plants. Carpet material is then transported to an exclusive recycling partner, where a proprietary process is used to upcycle the material into a high-grade polyurethane and polypropylene blend, transforming it into various products like nailer boards, planters and park benches. The process ensures that all components of the field avoid being sent to landfills in the replacement of the surface.
This most recent FieldTurf project follows the installation of a new hybrid grass surface at the Patriots’ Gillette Stadium practice field in November. The installation was completed by GrassMaster Solutions, a global leader in hybrid grass technology, which, like FieldTurf, is a Tarkett Sports Company.