Saving Money with Sports Artificial Turf: A 10-Year Plan

Maintaining a sports field comes with many expenses. As those expenses add up, many financial management teams are choosing to go the artificial turf route to keep costs down. You’ve likely heard that choosing artificial turf can save money through maintenance and water conservation, but how much can you expect to save?

Let’s take a look at a hypothetical 10-year plan on an 80,000 square foot sports field to help you see the bigger picture.

Initial Costs

It’s no secret that installing an artificial grass lawn has high upfront costs. More often than not, these exceed the cost of a real grass installation. For our hypothetical 80,000 square foot field, natural grass could cost somewhere in the range of $125,000. Meanwhile, an artificial grass field for that size may end up costing around $410,000.

But don’t write off artificial grass just yet; the true savings come after the turf is laid down — and long after that, as well.

Annual Maintenance

Artificial grass may have higher installation costs than regular grass, but the price disparity ends there. The real savings, especially over a 10-year period, comes from drastically reduced maintenance costs. Irrigation, fertilizing, mowing, pest control, weather repair — all these can amount to a hefty $40,300 a year in natural grass landscaping and maintenance. And artificial grass? You’re looking at a mere $3,300 a year for the minimal labor required to keep it performing its best, with substantial, immediate savings after the installation.

Emergencies

Got a damaged field? If you went with artificial grass from Artificial Turf Supply, you’ll have an 8-year warranty attached to your turf. With a 10-year extended warranty plan, you’re even more protected from the circumstances that would damage your turf. However, if you chose natural grass for your field, you’re out of luck — real grass lawns are rarely under warranty, and they’re at the mercy of drought, inclement weather, and other factors that may render them unusable for long periods of time.

Repeated Use

Making the most of a sports field means using it to host many events. Anything from big games to parades and community events can wear down natural grass lawns. Re-sodding is a necessary process to keep a natural grass looking and performing its best. The drawback? It’s a $375,000 job that’s typically done every three years. Meanwhile, an artificial turf lawn requires no re-sodding, granting it around 10 times the number of uses as a natural grass field. And no waiting is required for real grass to plump up again — many artificial grass products are designed to bounce back right away, even after heavy use.

The Bottom Line

At the end of a 10-year period, which do you think will cost management more in the long run? Here are the total costs:

● Natural Grass: $903,000
● Artificial Grass: $433,000

The projected numbers are nothing to scoff at — synthetic grass gets you over double the savings for your 80,000 square foot field as natural grass does for the same 10-year period. We hope that the next time you’re in the market for a new field; you’ll consider the financial advantage that artificial gives you.