Under-soil heating

Under-soil heating is a method used in various sports stadiums (that have grass as their main surface) which heats the underside of the pitch to avoid any bad weather, such as snow and ice, from building up and ultimately avoids the club from having to postpone any matches.

Most English Premiership teams have this installed in their stadia. While it is not an official requirement, it avoids any financial loss that a club might face in having to postpone any matches due to bad weather. Several teams in the United States National Football League (American football) located in cold-weather cities also have such a system installed. In the case of American football, it is more a matter of player safety, since NFL games are never postponed on account of weather.

There have been numerous occasions where under-soil heating's effectiveness has been questioned. One notable incident happened in December 27 2005 when three stadia in the FA Premier League, supposedly equipped with under-soil heating, failed to stop their pitches being covered in thick snow - this led to the matches being postponed. Subsequently, on January 1 2006, the premier league investigated as to why the pitches at the Reebok Stadium, Ewood Park, and St. James' Park (Bolton Wanderers, Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United respectively) were not able to repel the snow. In the U.S., a notable example of the failure of an under-soil heating system occurred in 1967, when a newly installed system at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin failed before the NFL Championship game. That game would enter American football lore as the "Ice Bowl".

Trivia

* In England, the first stadium to have under-soil heating installed was Highfield Road stadium, home to Coventry City until recently.