MetLife Stadium gets new turf after years of criticism originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
The New York Giants and Jets will share a new playing surface at MetLife Stadium starting in 2023.
New field turf has been installed at the stadium after years of widespread criticism. The updated version of FieldTurf, called FieldTurf Core, is a multi-layer dial-polymer monofilament fiber designed to produce fewer injuries than other infill weights.
MetLife Stadium’s old turf, the UBU Sports Speed Series S5-M, was widely criticized by players. The San Francisco 49ers saw a significant number of injuries, including season-ending knee injuries to Nick Bosa and Solomon Thomas, during back-to-back road games at MetLife Stadium in September 2020. Baltimore Ravens cornerback Kyle Fuller tore his ACL in a Week 1 road game against the Jets last season, leading to critiques from head coach John Harbaugh.
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“Installation of the new FieldTurf CORE system reinforces the commitment we have to providing the best playing surface for our teams,” MetLife Stadium president and CEO Ron VanDeVeen said Thursday in a statement. “The research that FieldTurf has put into the heavyweight infill design for this new field system will equip MetLife Stadium with one of the premier surfaces in the league.”
While the new turf is expected to be an improvement, Giants co-owner John Mara has hopes for a different long-term solution.
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“My hope is we can get to a day at some point in the future when we can have a grass field that we’re able to maintain with two different teams and all the other events we have,” Mara said Tuesday at the NFL owner meetings in Phoenix, via The New York Post. “I think we can get there at some point, Maybe it’s a hybrid product or something.”
On top of the 20 combined preseason and regular season games for the Giants and Jets next season, MetLife Stadium will also host shows for Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Ed Sheeran, Bruce Springsteen and more between now and the start of the 2023 NFL campaign.
Despite the preference among players to play on grass, the league is split between grass and turf surfaces. Sixteen teams play in stadiums with real grass, while 16 play at ones with artificial playing surfaces. That latter group includes four teams that share stadiums in their respective cities: the Giants, Jets, Los Angeles Chargers and Los Angeles Rams.
