ARENAS ARENAS
Brendan Eathorne
From lineouts to
burnouts
Since opening its doors six years ago, New Zealand’s Forsyth Barr Stadium, the world’s first permanently closed roof stadium with a natural turf playing surface, has always pushed the envelope. Last December it hosted one of the more unique events in its short history. 24
M
odern stadia have never been more versatile and in addition to hosting the likes of staple sports such as AFL, NRL, A-League soccer and cricket, are nowadays expected to host a plethora of other events. Many of these wouldn’t have been considered in years gone by, but thanks to developments in arena management techniques and technology, along with the skill and expertise of those whose job it is to maintain these facilities, such events are becoming more and more commonplace. Take two of Melbourne’s premier sporting facilities Etihad Stadium and AAMI Park as an example. Over the past three years AAMI Park has been converted each October from one of the best NRL, Super Rugby and A-League grounds in the country into a playground for Monster Trucks. That involves covering the entire surface with rolls of geofabric and 19mm ply boards before 4700 tonnes of dirt is spread and shaped into various forms of ramps and jumps. Similarly, the last two Octobers have seen Etihad Stadium host the final round of the Speedway Grand
AUSTRALIAN TURFGRASS MANAGEMENT 19.4
Prix World Championships. As was featured in ATM Volume 18.6 (On a fast track, pages 6-10), hosting the event involves the construction of the largest temporary speedway track in the world, with 4300 tonnes of specially sourced speedway dirt spread and graded. Motorsport events such as these place turf surfaces under some unique stresses, but one arena in New Zealand took things to a whole new level last December when it had a concrete track constructed over the top of its playing surface. The sport of ‘drifting’ has become extremely popular worldwide over the last decade and what was once very much an underground variant of motorsport has developed a cult following. In New Zealand the D1NZ National Drifting Championships has been around since 2003 and for the 2016-2017 season organisers decided to step things up by holding the first of its five event series at Dunedin’s Forsyth Barr Stadium. Costing $NZ198 million and opening back in August 2011, the 30,000 seat Forsyth Barr Stadium