The engineering solution behind Tottenham’s retractable pitch

Tottenham Hotspur’s new £850m stadium is nearing completion and they are due to move in later this year. If you are a lover of both football and technology (like me) then it is a very exciting prospect indeed.

Despite not being a Spurs fan myself, I am looking forward to taking in a match in their new ‘Tottenham Hotspur Stadium’ to see the many new technologies that are being integrated for an improved supporter experience. It feels like the Premier League is finally catching up with the NFL for stadium innovation.

Whilst we are on the subject of the NFL, it is certainly no accident that Tottenham have taken so many learnings from the United States. Central to chairman Daniel Levy’s plans to maximise income at the new stadium was a deal to bring at least two regular NFL season fixtures to Tottenham each season and enable other events including pop concerts to take place.

But in a city that includes the historic Wembley Stadium and the London Stadium (former Olympic Stadium) any move to persuade the NFL to commit to Tottenham Hotspur was going to have to be not only bold, but extremely innovative. And boy did they deliver!

The crown jewel that persuaded the NFL to agree to an initial 10-year deal was Tottenham’s idea to create the world’s first dividing retractable pitch; enabling a purpose-built NFL-standard artificial surface to sit underneath Tottenham’s own football pitch and provide a home for NFL Europe.

Whilst this idea was very exciting, it was up to Sheffield engineering company SCX Special Projects to make it a reality. This follows on from the company’s success in using similar engineering technology to design and install the retractable roofs over Centre Court and No. 1 Court at Wimbledon.

The ground-breaking design features a grass pitch sitting directly above an artificial surface, making the new Tottenham stadium the first of its kind in the UK to have two pitches inside the same bowl; creating a truly world-class multi-use venue. The fully retractable grass surface, with invisible and undetectable joins, will be used for football matches, whilst the artificial pitch underneath will be used for NFL matches, music concerts and a range of other events. This will protect the integrity of both playing surfaces.

It is expected to take around 25 minutes to switch from one surface to the other, with the grass surface sitting in three pitch-long steel trays, weighing more than 3,000 tonnes each. The pitch splits into three sections before retracting under the South Stand, revealing the artificial playing surface.

Danny Pickard, SCX’s lead engineer, said: “Our expertise and heritage enables us to push the boundaries of moving structures and precision engineering.

“This pitch technology embodies everything we strive for and care about – delivering precisely what the client needs, with the engineering flair that has become a hallmark of SCX.”