Corinthians Stadium, Sao Paolo, Brasil
Background
Following the successful delivery of 85 pitches for FIFA in the FIFA 2010 World Cup South Africa™, Richard Hayden was appointed to design and project manage the world’s most ambitious stadium pitch installation - Corinthians Stadium, Sao Paolo.
Purpose built for the tournament, the Corinthians Stadium was the venue for the opening ceremony and the semi-final of the FIFA World Cup 2014, Brasil™.
Solution
With extensive tournament experience behind him and experience of working in Brazil gathered as a FIFA consultant in preparation for the tournament, Richard quickly identified that a major challenge for pitch construction would be logistics. It can take up to 2 hours to move 2 miles on the crowded streets of Sao Paolo and more than 2,500 truck movements into and out of the pitch would be required to build the pitch.
Another key challenge was the climate with downpours of up to 100mm/hour and temperatures up to 40oC in rainy season. The Corinthians stadium was to be heavily shaded with limited air circulation making grass growth and management difficult. Richard developed a revolutionary new pitch cooling system allowing cool season ryegrass to survive in the stadium all year round (avoiding the need for conversion of grass species in summer).
The Result
The project was documented by the Discovery Channel™. The pitch in the Corinthians stadium was recognised as one of the best of the FIFA World Cup Brasil™. The project won a number of awards including best Design and Build award by the ALCI.