Turning a Metric Pitch Spec into a Turf Order
Every governing body writes its playing surface in metres. FIFA fixes a full-size pitch at 105 × 68 m, FIH marks a hockey field at 91.40 × 55 m, FIBA rules a court at 28 × 15 m. The synthetic carpet, shock pad and infill that go on top, however, are quoted by North American manufacturers per square yard — so a grounds manager or surface contractor spends the whole procurement stage moving between the two.
What the Two Units Each Control
Line markings set in metres
Carpet sold by the yard
Infill weighed by the foot
Two vocabularies, one crew
Sizing a Synthetic Surface from the Governing-Body Drawing
Start from the dimensions in the competition handbook, not from a tape measure on site — the marked field is the number every specification is written against.
Enter the pitch area in square metres
Multiply length by width first — 105 × 68 gives 7,140 — then type that in the left field. Decimal commas are accepted and spaces are ignored, so a pasted 5 027 works as it stands.
Add the run-off before you order carpet
Turf is laid as a rectangle over the whole construction, not just the marked field. A 113 × 74 m blanket around that pitch is 8,362 m² — very nearly 10,001 yd² on the supplier's quote.
Reverse it to audit a supplier's figure
Tap the swap button (↔) for yd² → m² and check a quoted roll schedule against the design area: 6,012.2 yd² of hockey carpet should map back to the 5,027 m² field on the drawing.
Send the plain number into the tender sheet
Copy lifts the value with no unit and no thousands spacing, ready for a bill of quantities. Ctrl + C in either field copies the same way.
Playing-Surface Areas by Sport in Square Meters and Square Yards
Standard competition dimensions and the area each encloses, given both as the metric spec figure and as the square-yard number a turf supplier will quote against.
| Playing surface | Standard dimensions | Area (m²) | Area (yd²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Football pitch, FIFA full size | 105 × 68 m | 7,140 m² | 8,539.4 yd² |
| Rugby union field of play | 100 × 70 m | 7,000 m² | 8,371.9 yd² |
| American football, incl. end zones | 120 × 53⅓ yd | 5,351.2 m² | 6,400 yd² |
| Hockey pitch, FIH standard | 91.40 × 55 m | 5,027 m² | 6,012.2 yd² |
| Futsal court | 40 × 20 m | 800 m² | 956.8 yd² |
| Basketball court, FIBA | 28 × 15 m | 420 m² | 502.3 yd² |
| Tennis court, doubles | 23.77 × 10.97 m | 260.8 m² | 311.9 yd² |
The American football row is the odd one out and shows why the two systems keep colliding: that field is defined in yards, so its square-yard area is a clean 6,400 while its metric area lands on an awkward 5,351.2. Every other row is defined in metres and produces the mirror image — a tidy metric figure and a square-yard number full of decimals.
Handy Behaviour During a Surface Tender
Compare several sports back to back
Both fields accept typing and update together, so a multi-sport site — pitch, courts, training grid — can be run through in one sitting.
Check a roll schedule against the design
One tap reverses to yd² → m², which is how you confirm a manufacturer's quoted carpet quantity really matches the surveyed construction.
Reach hectares for a whole sports campus
Searchable dropdowns hold every area unit, so the same page also handles the hectare figure on a site plan or a square-foot shock-pad datasheet.
Values ready for a bill of quantities
Up to eight decimals are shown for the rate work, while the copy button hands over the plain unformatted number.
Sports Surface and Turf Order Questions
How many square yards of turf does a full-size 105 × 68 m pitch need?
The marked field alone is 7,140 m² = 8,539.4 yd². Nobody orders only that: with the run-off margins a competition pitch needs, the carpeted rectangle is closer to 113 × 74 m = 8,362 m², or about 10,000 yd². Add the seaming and off-cut allowance on top of that figure.
Why do turf manufacturers quote per square yard when the pitch spec is metric?
The carpet is a textile product, and North American mills have always tufted and priced broadloom goods in yards, with 15 ft the standard machine width. European mills quote the same product per square metre. Sport specifications, by contrast, come from international federations that write everything in metres — so the two conventions meet on one purchase order.
How much infill goes on a synthetic pitch, in square-yard terms?
Manufacturers specify pounds per square foot, usually 2.5 to 3.5 for a sand-and-rubber system, which is 22.5 to 31.5 lb per square yard. Across the 8,539 yd² of a full pitch, 3 lb/ft² comes to about 230,000 lb — roughly 115 US tons of sand and crumb that has to be delivered and brushed in.
How do 15 ft turf rolls line up across a metric pitch?
A 15 ft roll is 4.572 m wide, so 68 m of pitch width takes 14.87 rolls — meaning 15 rolls with the last one trimmed. Each full roll running the 105 m length covers 480 m² (574.1 yd²). The seams and the trimmed edge are exactly where the waste percentage comes from.
Does a court area include the run-back and side clearance?
No — the figures in the table are the marked court only. A doubles tennis court is 260.8 m² (311.9 yd²), but the recommended surfaced enclosure of 36.58 × 18.29 m is 669 m², about 800 yd², more than twice as much material. Always convert the surfaced rectangle, not the lines.
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