Sheffield engineering specialist company SCX has developed the new retractable pitch for Tottenham Hotspur’s new stadium, which is set to host its first Premier League game tomorrow against Crystal Palace.
Despite it being nearly a year late, Tottenham’s new stadium is finally about to host a Premier League game. The grass surface of the stadium, which can be rolled back to reveal a bespoke NFL pitch below, has been developed by Sheffield’s SCX Special Projects, the bespoke engineering arm of the SCX group.
The first Premier League match, between Spurs and Crystal Palace, follows the successful testing of SCX’s pitch and two test games at the new 62,000-seater stadium.
The system will enable the stadium to be used for concerts and other events in addition to regular football matches and NFL games.
Danny Pickard, SCX’s project director, said: “It has been a phenomenal success, equal to what we have achieved with the retractable roofs for Centre Court and No.1 Court for the All England Lawn Tennis Club at Wimbledon, and within a very tight timescale.
“The Tottenham pitch went from being perceived as the highest risk part of the project – with all the moving parts, the turf joins and an engineering concept that had not been tried before – to something neither we nor the client had to worry about.”
