The chief executive of Optus Stadium has responded to concerns aired by some AFL commentators around the playing surface at the venue this season.
The stadium’s operator, VenuesLive, works closely with our contractors throughout the year to ensure a quality environment is made available to all players and officials.
On May 10, 2024 the AFL conducted an independent turf assessment at Optus Stadium and rated the surface as “Good” for Presentation, Turf Coverage, Surface Levels, Surface Hardness, Traction and Stability and Irrigation (with “Very Good” being the highest marker).
The AFL reported after the May 10 inspection that “the surface at Optus Stadium is in good condition with the majority of the surface in very good condition” and that “the sections of wear are still within the preferred range, however there is some aesthetic appearance issues with mature rye grass from last year persisting as the couch grass enters dormancy.”
While this assessment provides reassurance about the standard of the stadium’s surface, we acknowledge that the turf is not performing at the level we had hoped at this stage of the year.
Each year there is always a bit of a challenge transitioning from the summer grass to the winter grass. This year the growth of the winter rye grass that we rely on for the football surface was impacted by the long, warm and dry autumn, meaning it hasn’t had time to germinate as well as we would have liked.
Due to this experience and likelihood of these sort of climatic conditions continuing in future years, we are working with the turf curators on their plan for turf management going forward to make sure that we start the season in a much better position than we did this year.
The rye grass is now much more established and approaching the coverage required and we are confident that the turf conditions will improve as winter continues.
Our turf contractor continues to test the surface and it tests within AFL guidelines.