transforming hockey.

Record breaking crowds at downtown location

After the success of The Stoop, Big Stadium Hockey was back, this time to Dublin, allowing hockey to break free from the limitations of existing venues and break attendance records for women’s international sporting events in Ireland.

Over 12,000 fans descended on Energia Park (Donnybrook stadium) over two consecutive evenings to see the Women’s Olympic Qualifying Hockey matches between Ireland and Canada. The result was two historic firsts;

• The Irish women’s team qualified for Tokyo 2020, the first time the women’s team has qualified for an Olympic Games in the country’s history

• The first time Big Stadium Hockey has been used for an Olympic qualifying hockey event

challenges

Dublin, being only the second time Big Stadium Hockey portable pitch technology was being used (the first was The Stoop, June 2019) meant that the Energia Park project came with a number of new challenges.

These included:

Meeting Exacting Elite Standards

• The need to meet the new certification requirements for an elite level hockey turf. The Stoop resulted in the creation of a new FIH (International Hockey Federation) TOPS (Temporary Overlay Pitch) certification category for portable pitches and Dublin required us to meet these exacting standards

• While The Stoop had the challenge of overlaying the system onto grass, Energia Park required us to install over a 3G artificial turf rugby field. We had to do this without sustaining any damage to the surface and allow for any unevenness in the field.

Tight Timeframes

• The installation and removal time frames were very tight. The stadium was required to be back ready for rugby the Thursday after the weekend’s hockey, placing Polytan under tight time pressures.

Reusable

• The system needed to be re-usable, with the surface having to be rolled up, stored and at a future date permanently installed at a legacy location.

approach

Testing

• The existing 3G pitch surface is a high-performance sports surface, therefore we needed to guarantee its protection. To do this we conducted extensive testing to ensure that the artificial turf fibres on the 3G turf wouldn’t be flattened by the installation, use or removal. After the dismantle was completed we groomed and tested the field to ensure that it continued to comply with World Rugby requirements.

Condensed Install

• The very tight timeframe for install and dismantle meant that installation teams needed to install each system layer concurrently, whereas at The Stoop each layer was installed fully before we started the next. This approach allowed us to condense the timings significantly but required a lot of careful sequencing and coordination onsite to ensure everything flowed smoothly.

Turf Responsibly

• The surface for Big Stadium Hockey is Poligras Tokyo GT, the turf developed for the Tokyo Olympic Games. This turf is made from 60% re-growable raw materials (sugar cane), requires reduced water and is the most sustainable hockey pitch surface on the planet. Visit www.turfresponsibly.com to find out more about Poligras Tokyo GT

• Wherever possible Big Stadium Hockey re-uses installation components, in this case the shockpads were borrowed from England Hockey and the turf has been rolled up and stored, and will be reinstalled permanently in another venue

• The Big Hockey Stadium concept allows venue owners to maximise the utilisation of their stadiums, through non-traditional use between match fixtures and events and reduces the requirement for new permanent facilities to be built, reducing the impact on the environment and green spaces.