The KNHB together with TenCate Grass established a new, orange astro in the new Wagener Stadium in Amsterdam. Rabo Euro Hockey Championships 2017, which will be held from 18 to 27 August, will be the first official international tournament played on an orange surface.
In London during the 2012 Olympic Games, it was first time hockey was played on a blue field. Two years later at the World Championships in The Hague it was the green field. During the Games in Rio it went back to the blue field again, but for the European Hockey Championships the EHF has chosen to trial the orange field in Amsterdam. The FIH have also approved the orange colour.
The International Hockey Federation (FIH) in recent years conducted extensive research on the best colour combinations for players, spectators and television viewers. Following the research, the FIH has several colours approved for international competitions as substrate, including orange. Since the European Championships next summer place in the Netherlands, the choice of the colour of the pitch in the Wagener Stadium was a simple one.
Joost Vettorato manager KNHB events, welcomes the orange field “Some time ago we set the colour orange for, and now it has become more a reality too. We will work together with all the fans and international players to make a magnificent celebration of this extra orange flavour. ”
Ton Raaphorst from TenCate Grass adds: “When we heard that the colour orange was approved, we applied the colour to a field in which the latest developed technologies are included, the Greenfields TX 1.4. We are proud of the new artificial turf and look back on a productive collaboration with the KNHB. There is close cooperation with a number of hockey internationals, making the field is extremely fast and yet has a softer finish. Using new technology, we are now so far beaten “bouncing” balls within two or three Rumpy plane rolls. This new pitch will make field hockey faster and more attractive.
