Best Management Practices for Constructing Sand-based Athletic Fields for Football and Soccer

Sand-based, natural turfgrass and synthetic surfaces are the best options for athletic fields in the rainy Pacific Northwest. Sand-based, natural turfgrass fields, when compared to synthetic surfaces, are initially less expensive, more enjoyable to play on, cooler in warm weather, less hazardous when wet, more resilient and are 30 to 50 times less expensive to replace. However, high-quality, sand-based sports fields able to withstand intensive traffic under the range of climatic conditions present in the PNW depend on many construction components, including sand selection, base grade, surface and subsurface drainage, turfgrass genus and species selection. This publication is also available as an ebook.