Every football player dreams of playing in the Super Bowl. Last year, however, the field did not meet the Super Bowl standard.
In Super Bowl LVII, players from the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles struggled to maintain their feet. The game took place in Glendale, Arizona, on a natural grass playing surface that is rolled into and out of State Farm Stadium, which has a retractable roof. Some Eagles players had to replace their cleats midway through the game due to the slippery field.
The Super Bowl is now scheduled to take place in a new city, which may face similar playing surface difficulties.
Las Vegas will host its first Super Bowl when the Chiefs face the San Francisco 49ers in a rematch. Allegiant Stadium, like State Farm Stadium, is an indoor arena that rolls a natural grass floor in and out. While there hasn’t been any apparent sliding, the stadium’s Bermuda grass was in bad shape the last time it hosted an NFL game between the Las Vegas Raiders and the Denver Broncos in Week 18.
This week, the 49ers are already dealing with field difficulties in Las Vegas. NBC Sports Bay Area’s Matt Maiocco stated that some 49ers had safety concerns about their practice field on the UNLV campus, comparing it to a “sponge.”
Despite recent concerns at the Super Bowl and in Las Vegas, longstanding groundskeeper George Toma, sometimes known as the “Sodfather,” anticipates a much improved playing field this time around.
“You’ll see at Las Vegas now, they’ll have the best playing field ever,” Toma told the Associated Press.
Before the Chiefs and 49ers take the field on Sunday, let’s take a look at past Super Bowl playing surfaces.
How many Super Bowls were played on grass?
Super Bowl LVIII will be the 34th Super Bowl to be played on grass, and the fifth to be held indoors.
Glendale has hosted three previous Super Bowls played on indoor turf (XLII, XLIX, and LVII). The only other one was at Houston’s Reliant Stadium for Super Bowl XXXVIII, which featured the New England Patriots and the Carolina Panthers.
Allegiant Stadium features a permanent, translucent roof, unlike Glendale and Houston’s retractable roofs.
How many Super Bowls have been contested on turf?
Twenty-four Super Bowls have been held on turf.
The first 15 Super Bowls to incorporate turf were held on Poly-Turf or a variant of AstroTurf. The Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XL in Detroit, the first using a modern turf version. Since then, eight Super Bowls have been played on FieldTurf, Matrix Turf, or another synthetic turf.
Of the 24 turf Super Bowls, 18 have been played indoors and six outside. The most recent Super Bowl to be played on outdoor turf was Super Bowl XLVIII, which pitted the Seahawks against the Denver Broncos at MetLife Stadium.
