This week I want to focus on grass.
Grass, especially 13,000m2 of grass, is one of those things in a stadium that everyone tends to notice. The colour. The cut. The smell. The hallowed turf.
But what most people don’t see is how much work and technology sits beneath the surface. Not just in growing it, but in managing it through changing seasons, different sports and a packed event calendar, all while meeting the expectations of global sporting organisations, broadcasters, players, and fans.
At Eden Park, delivering a world-class playing surface is not about mowing straight lines and hoping for good weather. It is a continuous, highly technical process that brings together agronomy, engineering, scheduling, broadcast standards and player safety, and all while hosting an increasingly diverse calendar of events 12 months of the year.
Grass may look simple, but it’s not. It is a living system with limits. Every sprint, tackle, and change of direction applies force to the surface. Every piece of equipment driven across the field compresses the soil structure. Every concert brings thousands of people standing and dancing on the turf for hours at a time.
The role of our turf team is not simply to grow grass; it is to manage those stresses so that when sport returns, the surface performs exactly as it should.
One of the simplest expectations players have, is also one of the hardest to deliver. No surprises. Elite athletes expect the same traction and firmness wherever they step. A soft patch or uneven area is not just an inconvenience; it’s an injury risk.
Natural turf needs time to grow, to recover and to knit together at the root zone – processes which we can’t speed up because a broadcast window is locked in, a fixture is moved forward, or we add a new event to the calendar. Recovery happens in biological time, not commercial time which is why our turf is constantly monitored, measured and managed. High wear areas are treated differently to low impact zones, and recovery plans are mapped months in advance.
This challenge grows as more sports and events are layered into the event calendar. Rugby, cricket and football each place different demands on turf. Add concerts and large-scale events, and the margin for error becomes smaller again.
Believe me when I say that sometimes the look that I get from our turf manager when I’m talking about new events says everything without needing to say much at all. But every time, the team delivers. Whether that’s hosting three sports codes in four days or welcoming more than 50,000 people for a concert and then turning the turf around for an All Blacks test.
To deliver on our vision to increase the utilisation of our national stadium, we knew we had to do things differently. Establishing an off-site turf farm and developing and introducing the HG Hero Eden Park Edition, a carpet-backed, hybrid turf, was a deliberate decision. This lay and play strategy, which allows us to replace turf when we need it, means we can support a broader event calendar while maintaining the quality expected at this level.
Even with the right systems in place, turf performance still comes back to how grass grows.
Light plays a bigger role in this process than most people realise. Grass relies on photosynthesis which means natural sunlight is fundamental to turf health. Open air stadiums including those with retractable roofs, benefit from direct sunlight that supports stronger growth and faster recovery with less intervention. This means turf teams working in stadiums with fixed roofs typically compensate using lighting rigs, heating systems and airflow management systems. While they work, they add complexity, cost and energy use and while the trade-off is rarely visible to fans, it matters. Natural sunlight reduces reliance on artificial inputs and allows turf to recover more naturally between events.
Large scale concerts are a good example of how these systems are tested.
A single concert can mean more than 50,000 people standing above the playing surface for hours. Protective flooring systems are often in place for days leading into the concert, the turf underneath experiences heat, compaction and reduced airflow. Recovery is possible, but it takes time, and time is often in short supply.
This is where our lay and play turf strategy has become a key factor. Turf grown to precise specifications offsite can be harvested, transported and installed quickly, allowing stadiums to transition from concerts back to sport without compromising player safety or broadcast quality.
This approach was put into practice during the recent Ed Sheeran tour, which required multiple stadiums to reset their playing surfaces quickly to accommodate sporting events. Turf grown as part of Eden Park’s programme was installed at several venues around the country, allowing them to move quickly from concerts back to sport.
One of the least visible but most important parts of this story is people.
High-performing turf does not come from products alone. It comes from experience. At Eden Park, that experience sits with people like Blair Christiansan, who leads a team operating at the intersection of agronomy, event scheduling and elite performance requirements every week.
Managing a surface through international sport, concerts and compressed turnaround times demands calm judgement, deep technical knowledge and the confidence to make the right calls when the margin for error is small.
That experience is not static. Over time, it is shared. Team members move between venues, standards travel with them, and capability lifts across the system.
This is where our advisory work increasingly sits. Not as theory, but as applied experience. The same people who manage elite turf under intense scheduling pressure are now helping other venues, including international stadiums, think through recovery planning, surface performance, event sequencing and risk management. It is about leveraging proven talent and systems, and applying them where they can add value.
The reality for stadiums everywhere is that greater utilisation places greater strain on turf.
Venues are no longer single-purpose facilities. They are civic assets expected to host sport, entertainment and community activity, often within the same season. That diversity brings economic and social benefits, but it also demands more sophisticated turf strategies.
The answer is not to pretend turf is indestructible, nor to argue that venues should only be used sparingly. It is to be honest about the complexity involved and to invest accordingly. In planning. In technology. In people. And in systems that allow recovery when it is needed.
When it works, no one notices. The grass looks right. The footing is sure. The broadcast shots are clean. And the conversation moves on.
And in many ways, that is exactly how it should be.
If you want to watch grass grow, or our turf team in action, you can always look at our HG Turf Cam.
