High Tech Turf

It’s half time and, as the teams leave the field, the playing surface is transformed in to a football field size TV, the mother of all monitors. Sportexe, a prominent maker of synthetic turf, has developed a new surface that does just that, melding fiber optics with AstroTurf.  It’s called Turf TV.

Imagine all the possibilities! Gigantic slow motion replays. A field size flag during the national anthem. A beer commercial visible from the space shuttle. A recent story in Forbes Magazine provides a lot of detail and does a great job of proposing potential uses for the new product.

A Turf TV football field will cost $1.5 million, three times the cost of competing artificial surfaces and eight times the cost of a real grass field.  Sportexe argues that the cost of maintenance of grass surfaces levels the playing field, so to speak.  They also predict that the high tech surface will become a must for major sports venues because of the potential for advertising revenue.

And you thought the Viagra billboard behind the batter during baseball telecasts was annoying.