SIS Sets The Stage For Riyadh’s Season Cup With First Fully Indoor Hybrid Pitch

Riyadh Season Cup

Season Cup, Riyadh’s showpiece football tournament featuring Messi and Ronaldo, was made possible thanks to the world’s first fully indoor hybrid pitch built in 21 days at the Kingdom Arena by global sports surfaces specialist, SIS Pitches.

The competition forms part of the Riyadh Season, a festival featuring both live sport and entertainment in the capital, funded by the Saudi government’s Public Investment Fund. All Season Cup games take place at the Kingdom Arena in front of 24,000 fans. During the competition, the stadium received two Guinness World Records. The first for being the largest covered football stadium; the second for having the largest seating capacity for an indoor covered stadium.

Setting the stage

Setting the stage for the cup’s major fixtures, including Al Nassr vs. Inter Miami, was a major challenge for SIS Pitches. Construction and development of the elite indoor sports venue started in late 2023, giving the business a much shorter window to install and prepare a playing surface fit for top-level competition.

However, this short window was only one part of the challenge. SIS also had to ensure the natural turf grew strong enough to properly secure the small percentage of synthetic fibres stitched into the arena’s surface, as is standard for hybrid pitches of this type. This process was made harder by the arena’s fully indoor design, which blocks out all sunlight. The SIS team worked around this by using ultraviolet growing lights to prepare the pitch in time.

Sela, the developer responsible for the arena, requested a game-ready playing surface in just three weeks, much shorter than the typical window for a major development of this type. This aligned with the pace of construction for the wider stadium, which was completed in just 60 days.

Speed and resilience were key. SIS Grass Hybrid, the solution specified by SIS, merges natural turf with a small percentage of polymer yarn. Already used by many of the most recognisable names in sports, this mixture is injected by the company’s patented electric stitching machine, providing a more consistent and resilient playing surface. SIS’s machine is capable of covering 1300m2 metres per day with a 90mm shallow stitch, making it ideal for quick installs like that requested by Sela.

SIS Grass Hybrid is much harder-wearing than an all-natural pitch, and is proven to accommodate more playing hours while also being less susceptible to wear or damage. This was particularly important for the Kingdom Arena, given the small window groundspeople have to prepare between entertainment and sports events.

A truly unique stadium

The stadium is home to Saudi Professional League team Al Hilal. It will also host several other major sporting events in the coming months, including two heavyweight championship boxing fights. The Kingdom Arena is similar to New Zealand’s Forsyth Barr Stadium, which is also indoors, though the latter is fitted with a transparent roof that allows sunlight to enter. Riyadh’s stadium is therefore the first fully indoor facility to be completed.

Based in Riadyh’s Boulevard City development, the Kingdom Arena boasts all the facilities expected from a modern stadium, fitted with a state-of-the-art air monitoring system and 20 skyboxes. The Season Cup was originally touted as football’s ‘last dance’, with Ronaldo and Messi set to meet competitively for what was expected to be the final time. However, Al Nassr coach Luis Castro ruled out Ronaldo’s participation in the game between Al Nassr and Inter Miami citing a persistent calf injury. Messi was substituted on for the final seven minutes.

Thank you to Hall construction company and owner, Sela | صلة for putting their trust in us to deliver this groundbreaking project, as well as their Agronomy team for excellent support throughout the process.

For more information on SIS Grass Hybrid, visit SIS Hybrid Grass