Outdoor Athletic Facilities

Believe it or not, there is more to creating a football field than taking a flat stretch of ground (assuming you can find one), putting goal posts 120 yards apart, and drawing some lines on the ground with chalk. A football field, or any outdoor athletic facility for that matter, needs to be carefully designed if it is going to work well. There are many elements that must be addressed if you want to create a quality outdoor athletic facility, such as:

What is the playing surface?

Are you going to be playing on grass or clay or concrete of some form of artificial turf? Each of these surfaces will require different substrate preparation to work properly.

What happens to your facility when it rains?

A well-designed outdoor athletic facility is not flat. If it were, there would undoubtedly be local low spots where water would just sit on the field until it soaked into the ground, dried up, or was squeegeed off the field by the grounds crews. It is up to the facilities designer to provide a system whereby rain water leaves the field quickly so that competitions do not turn into water polo matches.

What happens to the water after it leaves the field?

To learn more about this, please see our page on Storm Water Management.

What else do you need other than the playing surface?

Are you going to have spectators? Then you need bleachers. Will you be playing at night? Then you need lights. Will you have equipment at the site? Then you need storage sheds. Are you short of parking for the fans? Then you need a new parking lot.

The list goes on and on. At Inspec, we know what goes into creating top-notch athletic facilities. We have been designing award-winning multi-purpose athletic facilities for over 45 years. Let our experienced engineers guide you through the process of defining exactly what you want, then turn them loose to create a facility you will be proud of.