Project details

New York is better known as The Big Apple. However, maintaining a healthy lifestyle is a big challenge for most citizens. This is especially true for those living in and around Manhattan, where most of New York’s commercial activity is concentrated. This area in particular is the reason why New York is considered to be ‘the capital of the Western world’. The flip side of this role is that most citizens rush from meeting to meeting and job to job to make ends meet. The top of their agenda lists many things but sports often doesn’t enter such a list. Through facilitating sports, Asphalt Green tries to make a difference.

Community service is at the core of the origin and still the heart of its mission. The organization is also committed to becoming New York City’s leading football club that is recognized as an elite program regionally and nationally. They estimate that they will ensure that more than 50,000 public school children will stay active in 2019.

Quality product for quality installation

In 2017 Asphalt Green contracted with Net Sports Group to replace the artificial turf field at the Upper East Campus. A GreenFields Ironturf woven artificial turf carpet was selected and the decision was made to compliment the turf with a ProPlay shock pad. The recognition for shock pads is gaining momentum now with sports federations and researchers, who increasingly recognise the value of a shock pad to maintain the quality of a field and provide safety to athletes. As this field had been featured in a ‘Top 9 NYC’s worst football fields’ listing previously, the decision to add a shock pad to the new field received a warm welcome by New York’s football fraternity.

ProPlay is one of the very few shock pads that has been used for close to 30 years. Schmitz Foam Products, the manufacturer of ProPlay, warrants all of their shock pads for 25 years.

Allen Hubbard, then National Sales Manager of Schmitz Foam Products comments; “This latest field for Asphalt Green is one of numerous ProPlay installations in the greater Manhattan area. This is due to the tremendous value that this shock pad represents, enabling the field to be used for an extreme amount of hours annually in all weather conditions while still providing a very safe and consistent sports surface.”

Not influenced by the weather

The new 8,100 sqm. artificial turf field is not affected by the kind of rainfall New York experiences. Despite the city having an above average rainfall compared to the rest of the country (119.30 cm compared to the national average of 96.50 cm per annum nationally) the field at Asphalt Green drains quickly. ProPlay is produced from polyethylene foam. The material has a closed cell structure preventing the shock pad from absorbing moisture. Water, be it from rain or melting snow, flows directly through the pad towards the drainage system underneath. Thanks to the new field Asphalt Green is now able to continue running its programs during rain or in winter. The Upper East Side campus attracts over 2 million visits annually and those using the field do so for competitive and recreational football games, free community sports leagues and events, flag football, and summer camps.

Easy installation

Many New Yorkers know too well the meaning of ‘time is money’. The replacement of the synthetic turf at Asphalt Green was no different. However, the use of ProPlay helped NET Sports to replace the field rapidly. ProPlay sheets are easy to handle and install quickly due to their interlocking puzzle tile shape. The quality of the pad also reduces the need for extensive base remediation, making the replacement of any synthetic turf field much more efficient in terms of both time and money.

With the field completed, all that is left is the official FIFA recognition. An accredited laboratory will now have to determine the quality of the installation and validate the performance of the field. Testing its performance in terms of shock absorption and energy restitution will merely be an administrative recognition. The quality standards and testing at the Schmitz Foam Products plants in Roermond, the Netherlands, and Coldwater, Michigan, dictate that the quality of the shock pad is verified every 250 m² which results in 30 random spots on a field. That is almost double the number of spots compared to the 19 FIFA dictates.

Asphalt Green Executive Director Maggy Siegel is elated with the installation. "We are thrilled for the community to experience our new, state-of-the-art turf field. The overhaul of our athletic field with Ironturf technology elevates the levels of our competitive, recreational, and free community programs," she said while discussing this installation. "We are proud to be at the forefront of providing the latest technology and highest safety standards in the industry." It is an offering that residents in Manhattan will certainly value and appreciate.