Chapel Hill – In another significant upgrade to the University of North Carolina’s athletic facilities, the Tar Heels are installing AstroTurf® at their football stadium. This will be their third installation of an AstroTurf athletic field in less than a year. Along with Kenan Stadium, the university previously installed fields for their football indoor practice facility and their national championship field hockey team.
The field at Kenan Stadium will mirror the indoor facility field in that it will feature AstroTurf’s RootZone 3D3 Blend turf system. This premium product is AstroTurf’s most popular stadium turf due to its combination of long-lasting performance and game day good looks. The RootZone system results in minimal infill splash and better shock absorbency, while improving safety, playability and durability. Also included in the system is Trionic®, AstroTurf’s patented new wonder-fiber. Trionic® is a blend of polyethylene and nylon fibers that is quickly revolutionizing the synthetic turf industry.
UNC has been building and updating multiple facilities recently and the department has learned much about what works best in various venues. The advanced technology found in the AstroTurf® systems performs well under the heavy use and demands that the athletic teams will place on it.
“Installing AstroTurf at Kenan Stadium not only is the best option for our football team and football game days – it also benefits our other varsity programs that may want to use Kenan as a conditioning space,” said Bubba Cunningham, UNC Athletic Director. “With 28 teams and more than 800 student-athletes, we are always looking for ways to create multi-use spaces, and installing synthetic turf at Kenan Stadium does that.”
With the installation at Kenan Stadium, the Tar Heels will have installed over a quarter of a million square feet of AstroTurf® within the last year. The Indoor Practice Facility was completed in the fall of 2018 and is on or above par with any other facility of its type in the country. Also, completed in 2018 is the new field at Karen Shelton Stadium. The Tar Heel Field Hockey team enjoyed a banner year on world-class AstroTurf that has been FIH-certified meaning that it meets the highest standards required for international competition. All of these improvements are benefiting multiple UNC athletic programs and student-athletes.
“I think this is a positive addition for not only our football program, but the athletics department as a whole,” said UNC Football Coach Mack Brown. “This will make the facility more versatile and give us a number of options for workouts and practices.”
The Tar Heels will open their season against the University of South Carolina on August 31st in Charlotte. The home opener on the new AstroTurf® at Kenan Stadium will be on September 7th against the University of Miami.
About AstroTurf:
For athletes and sport enthusiasts, AstroTurf® has redefined the way the game is played. The brand offers advanced, state-of-the-art, multi-sport and specialized synthetic turf systems with proprietary engineered technologies. A growing number of high schools, colleges, professional sports teams and municipalities continue to select AstroTurf-branded products for their premium quality, technical superiority, and safety. To learn more, visit AstroTurf’s website at www.astroturf.com.