Football Stadium ADO Den Haag Converted for 2014 Hockey World Cup

THE HAGUE, The Netherlands, May 21, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

The Kyocera Stadium of football club ADO Den Haag has today been delivered featuring a newly installed GreenFields® TX top-class hockey pitch as the main stadium for the 2014 Hockey World Cup. The nearby, temporary GreenFields Stadium - the second playing location of the tournament - was ready for play earlier. The Rabobank 2014 Hockey World Cup will be held in The Hague from 31 May through 15 June. 

     (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140521/687111 )

The main pitch in the Kyocera stadium will form the heart of the international tournament and can accommodate 15,000 hockey fans. For two weeks this will be one of the largest hockey stadiums in the world. The main stadium will be the venue for all the matches to be played by the Dutch national teams as well as for the finals.

The Rabobank 2014 Hockey World Cup is the largest top sporting event in the Netherlands this year, with 24 hockey teams from 15 countries fighting it out for the world title - 432 top-flight players in 12 men´s teams and 12 women´s teams. A total of 76 matches will be played in the main stadium and the adjacent GreenFields stadium.

In order to make both stadiums suitable for top-level hockey, synthetic turf supplier GreenFields produced the pitch using a TenCate fibre that was specially developed for this sport. Henk Bijsterbosch, director, marketing & sales at GreenFields: 'Synthetic turf pitches are available for virtually all sports, but very specific requirements apply to a hockey pitch. It must for example be super-fast to play on and at the same time have optimal shock absorption to prevent injuries. Moreover, ball behavior must be identical in all directions. This is a pitch for champions. When it comes to the colour of the pitch, we have provided natural dark green for this international sporting event.'

In addition, the top-class Dutch hockey clubs where the 24 World Cup teams are staying and training all have the World Cup GreenFields^® TX synthetic turf carpet. Experiences of the pitch are positive. 'Nice and smooth, fast, with good ball rebound. The ball rolls evenly in every direction, so that fast play is perfectly possible,' is the opinion of former international Floris Evers. The central midfielder of the Dutch women's team, Eva de Goede, is also enthusiastic: 'It´s really great. The surface is soft, so there's less risk of injuries. Lifting and chopping are also fine.'

About GreenFields and TenCate 

GreenFields is the supplier of the GreenFields^® TX synthetic turf system for the Rabobank  2014 Hockey World Cup and is part of material technology concern Royal Ten Cate (TenCate), which is, among other things, the global market leader in the development and production of synthetic turf fibres and partner of the Royal Dutch Hockey Federation (KNHB).

SOURCE Royal Ten Cate