Independence Park General Manager Major Desmon Brown says the playing surface at the National Stadium, which it operates, will be ready for the Reggae Boyz’s Concacaf Nations League match against Cuba on Friday, September 6.

This is amid concerns about the field’s condition after last week’s Independence Day Grand Gala celebration, as it was used for performances by hundreds of dancers and housed a stage for musical performances.

“We had some trampling on it and a stage, and we had some damage, but it will not be a problem,” Brown told the Jamaica Observer on Thursday afternoon. “But we’re working on it. We cut and fertilised it today, and we can assure the public that it will be ready.”

The discussion regarding the playing surface tends to occur yearly, as there is a FIFA international window in early September, where Jamaica has a home match hosted at the National Stadium. In years past, the Grand Gala celebrations and irrigation issues because of droughts meant national coaches cited concerns with the field’s condition before games.

With Independence Park’s use of the National Stadium as a venue for events other than sports to generate more revenue, it has been suggested that the grass is covered before the staging of concerts and other events hosted on the field, as is done in major stadiums globally.

But Brown says doing this is not feasible.

“It would kill the grass if we covered it,” Brown said. “We’d have to buy a special translucent cover, which we are hoping to get at some point.”

Wembley Stadium in London, England, hosts that country’s international football team and other major events such as boxing matches, professional wrestling, and concerts. When these events occur, special measures are taken to protect the grass and have football played there within as little as five days as opposed to in the past where recovery would take five weeks.

Wembley’s field technicians use a type of surface called Lay and Play, which is grown off-site and transported to the stadium.

That field consists of 720 rolls of turf, with each unit 10 metres long by 1.2 metres wide, and requires 60 hours to install. When hosting other events, the turf is disassembled. Jamaica’s National Stadium does not have this opportunity, as its grass surface is grown naturally.

Wembley’s Grounds Manager Karl Standley told United Kingdom-based website
SportsNation, “Growing it off-site means we can ultimately cut down the time required between concerts and football to let the pitch recover so that Wembley can continue to keep up with global demand to stage world-class events.

“Our pitch is unique and has very certain requirements. It involves a specific blend of sun, water, and nutrients, and takes 14 weeks to get into perfect shape. Even the fertiliser plan is bespoke to our requirements.”

While Independence Park does not have the same financial resources as Wembley’s owners, work on the National Stadium has been planned for nearly a decade, with Sport Minister Olivia Grange promising that renovation will start next year and continue in phases until 2028.

Jamaica Football Federation General Secretary Dennis Chung says he understands the commercial considerations and constraints, but every option should be explored to innovate the management of the field.

“I think we need to get proper funding of the facilities in the budget from the Government,” he told the Observer. “Sports is one of our competitive advantage areas. We definitely need to see ground broken on the stadium improvements and we need to just have a proper facility in place if we’re going to have an area that we want to use for events other than sports. Have it in such a way that it can adapt like other stadiums overseas.”

Chung says it also highlights the need for a specific area for entertainment in Kingston that can support as large a spectator turnout as the National Stadium, which seats roughly 35,000.

“It’s something we’ve been talking about for a long time,” he said. “But the fact is that we definitely need to have a modern national stadium if we’re going to consider ourselves a sporting force to be reckoned with.”

Many football coaches will say the field is important to how their teams play, especially as modern football requires more and shorter passes in tight spaces. An uneven surface or poor grass quality provides a challenge to this.

The Reggae Boyz’s game against Cuba will also come into focus, as it will be new Head Coach Steve McClaren’s debut.