A Life-Cycle Cost Analysis of Synthetic Infill and Natural Grass Systems

The perception of a long-term cost advantage of synthetic infill turf systems relative to natural grass systems has contributed to a rise in their popularity in the USA. This case study compared the costs associated with installation and maintenance of third-generation synthetic infill and natural turfgrass systems in the Pacific Northwest, U.S.A. Installation costs, maintenance budgets, and field use information were gathered from five synthetic and five natural grass systems and used to find the cost of providing an hour of use. Findings from this work determined that the average cost of installing a synthetic field was $162.66 m^-2 and the average annual equivalent was $20.10 m^-2. The average cost of installing a natural grass field was $45.61 m^-2 and an annual equivalent $10.11 m^-2. When cost of providing an hour of use was taken into consideration, the synthetic fields averaged $3.25 per player use hour and natural grass fields averaged $3.48 per player use hour.