Super Bowl pitch hides high-tech secret

A retractable playing field

Super Bowl pitch hides high-tech secret. Sports Fitness, Gadgets, Photos 0

1 February 2008 12:17 GMT / By Stuart Miles

NEWS: 1 February 2008 12:17 GMT - The venue for this year's Super Bowl XLII, the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, has a very clever trick hidden underneath the pitch.

It might look like an ordinary football stadium, but the hidden out of sight are 76 electric motors, 542 steel wheels and 13 rails on which it runs.

Why the need for the gadgetry?

To get the pitch, which normally lives in the outside in a secured perimeter, into the stadium ready for games and this year's Super Bowl XLII between New York Giants and the New England Patriots in Arizona this Sunday.

When not in use, the entire pitch, all 234ft x 403ft and 8600 tonnes of it, lives outside in it’s secured enclosing allowing it to get maximum sunlight, a whopping 300+ days a year.

The stadium's officials moved the pitch by press the button on Wednesday that shifted the massive amount of grass and earth into place.

The whole process takes just over an hour.

The stadium cost $455 million to build, but the stadiums officials say the system works. It hosted 91 events in its first 100 days, while ensuring the pitch is always in tiptop shape. In fact in its first year, the stadium had 182 events, but just 12 of those events were football.

It's also saved them a lot of money. Having the rollout field saves $50 million in costs since it is more economical to move the field than having the entire roof retract to allow the necessary sunshine to reach the grass.

Images courtesy of Global Spectrum.