AFAS Stadium Alkmaar deploys LED grow lights from SGL for turf maintenance

A turf in a sports stadium often gets a hard time. The combination of a busy playing schedule and challenging weather conditions - from prolonged drought to harsh winter cold - is not always conducive to healthy turf growth. With a range of advanced growing systems, including LED grow lights, SGL provides sports clubs with innovative solutions to optimize the growth and health of sports turf. Jan Dijkhuizen, field manager at the AFAS Stadium of AZ Alkmaar, is already full of praise for SGL's wonder lights.

The quality of sports fields is essential for top performance and a safe playing environment. SGL, a leading company in sports field technology, plays a crucial role in this. Their advanced LED growth lighting systems have revolutionized the way turf is maintained on sports fields. This technology is proving its worth in numerous top stadiums worldwide, including AZ Alkmaar's AFAS soccer stadium.

Impressive customer portfolio

SGL - short for Stadium Grow Lighting - specializes in innovative solutions to optimize the growth and health of sports turf in challenging conditions. Through precision technology, the company offers solutions for stadiums and sports fields that struggle with low sunlight, heavy loads and adverse weather conditions. The systems are designed to make grass stronger, greener and more durable, even in stadiums with canopies that limit natural light penetration. In its sector, SGL aims to be a real gamechanger for sports field management.

The customer portfolio of the company from Waddinxveen, the Netherlands, looks impressive. SGL's system has already been implemented at more than five hundred of the world's largest sports clubs and stadiums, from Camp Nou in Barcelona to Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas and from Allianz Arena in Munich to Melbourne Cricket Ground in Australia.

Innovative growth lighting

How does LED growth lighting work in practice? This technology mimics natural sunlight, providing just the right wavelengths that grass needs for photosynthesis. The use of red and blue light stimulates growth and recovery. LED lighting is not only effective, but also energy efficient. In fact, this technology uses less electricity than traditional lighting and generates less heat. In addition, SGL systems feature sensors and advanced software that continuously collect data on field conditions, such as temperature. With this information, the lighting system automatically matches infrared radiation to the needs of the field, producing a consistent, high-quality turf.

Wide range of benefits

So an investment in an LED grow light system offers many benefits. By deploying this type of lighting, the grass becomes healthier and stronger, leading to fewer bare spots and better playing quality. At the same time, a stronger turf reduces the impact of intensive play. As a result, the turf will recover faster after games or workouts, which is especially important with an intensive playing schedule. And, as already mentioned, there is the energy savings that reduce annual energy bills.

Case study: AFAS Stadium AZ Alkmaar

A great example of how SGL's LED growth systems work is seen at Dutch soccer club AZ Alkmaar. At the AFAS stadium, field manager Jan Dijkhuizen is responsible for field maintenance. Thanks to SGL's LED technology, he keeps the health and strength of the sports turf perfectly under control.

"Maintaining our turf is a challenging task," Jan points out. "Three years ago the management invested in a new Grassmaster mat, with a mixture of normal grass and artificial turf. The combination of unpredictable weather conditions - with increasingly long droughts and intense rain showers - and a busy match calendar put the quality of the mat to the test throughout the year. During the summer months, our turf sometimes struggles to retain adequate moisture. With the SGL light installations, we get the growth cycle of the grass well under control. We use three installations that we deploy every other day, good for a total of 300 watts. Even after intensive loading, the field recovers within a few days, allowing us to guarantee consistent quality."

"Our cooperation with SGL has been going on for several years, and our contacts with their team are excellent. The lines of communication are short, so at the slightest question we get a quick response from Waddinxveen," Jan concludes.