Ohio State Representatives Rodney Creech and Terrence Upchurch have proposed a bill that would require all professional sports fields to be 90% grass. The bill is sponsored by the NFL Players Association.

When adopted, Ohioan sports surfaces will be allowed to only be covered with hybrid or full natural grass surfaces.

According to Creech, the bill would provide athletes with the same “safe working environments” that all other employees are given under state law and save Ohioan athletes from injury.

Creech himself owns a turf business in the Dayton area that mainly focuses on landscaping projects.

The bill is introduced at a time when the use of synthetic turf for sports surfaces in the US is increasingly being scrutinised. With some NFL players having picked up an injury while playing on, or after having played on synthetic turf, the call for banning this type of surface is increasingly getting louder throughout the US.

One player has already lodged a case, claiming that the club and venue owners had failed to provide him with a safe “working environment.”

Opens the door to hybrid

As the bill requires sports surfaces to have at least 90% natural grass, this opens the door to the use of hybrid turf systems.

In the past few years, several hybrid turf suppliers have entered the US market in the run-up to the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Over the past few tournaments, hybrid surfaces have become the field of choice for the international football governing body.

There are many different hybrid turf solutions available. The ins and outs of this system and the suppliers are explained in this article.