Five Benefits of Multi-Sports Turf for Schools

School sports are a big part of New Zealand and Australian culture, and for most kids it contributes to their sense of identity. We can’t avoid it – not that we would want to – school sports are here to stay, and there are plenty of good reasons why it should.

Creating and maintaining suitable sports facilities can be difficult for many schools, however – with limited space and limited funding, meeting the various needs of students with different interests and skills can be a tall order.

Many schools find themselves only able to offer a small selection of sports, meaning that the kids who would prefer to be playing something else are left behind.

Thankfully, there’s a good solution that ticks all of the boxes: expanding your options with multi-sports turf. Kids at schools with multi-sports playing areas enjoy significantly more options for physical activities, and the ease of maintenance is great for resourcing.

In this article, we’ll outline the top five reasons why multi-sports synthetic turf is an excellent option for primary and intermediate schools that want to offer variety to their students.

A multi-sports turf is an excellent way to get the most use out of limited space. Different schools have different spatial allocations for sports and activities, so a multi-sports turf offers more variety with limited space. One sports field and one sports court can provide a playing surface for the following sports:

• Tennis
• Netball
• Basketball
• Hockey
• Football
• Junior Cricket
• Football
• Futsal
• Rugby
• Cricket outfields

No matter what the season, synthetic grass is ready for play. With excellent drainage, your students will avoid slippery, boggy play surfaces in the winter and dry, dusty surfaces in the summer.

Synthetic turf offers consistency so that the surface you practice on is the surface that you play on. What’s more, multi-sports turf means that as the sports seasons change, so can the games that are played on the same surface.

Saturday morning winter games? There’s nothing worse than trying to play on a field of real grass that has become muddy and slippery after a few hours of constant play. With artificial turf, the surface is consistent from game to game – no need to rotate between numerous fields – all available fields can be in play at the same time.

Constant maintenance is required to keep real grass fields playable and safe: mowing, rolling, spraying, irrigating, drainage, and re-applying marking paint.

Artificial multi-sports turf can come with different coloured, permanent markings to delineate zones of play for a range of sports. They’re suitable for high use and durable enough to hold up for many years of consistent play.

It doesn’t need to be mowed, and the irrigation, drainage, and leveling are all taken care of during the installation. All you need to do is keep it clear from debris to avoid rotting leaves from making it slippery, and it’s good to go!

There’s no denying that people are impacted by their surroundings. At school, kids spend much of their time indoors, and getting outside is an important part of the day – it’s something that they look forward to.

It makes sense to create beautiful, green spaces to offer a break from the four walls of the classroom. Synthetic grass looks natural and attends to our need to see green space whilst being outdoors.

Bright, clean, and attractive colours suggest a healthy school culture – and they just make you feel good.

Finally, given how integral sports are for young Kiwi and Aussie kids, it’s important to make sure that everyone is included. When the way a child performs at sports is a formative part of their identity, they need to have options to do the activities they’re most drawn to.

Multi-sports turf simply gives the school and the children more options for play. If the goal is to enable everybody to participate, then it’s important to ensure that there are a variety of activities available.

Synthetic grass is also an accessible surface option; easy for wheelchairs and walkers. Whether they want to participate in the game or cheer on their favourite team from the sideline, accessing a synthetic field or court is no problem.

If you’re considering adding multi-sports synthetic turfs to your school sports and recreation area, get in touch with the team at TigerTurf.