A playing field is a field used for playing sports or games. They are generally outdoors, but many large structures exist to enclose playing fields from bad weather or to provide seating stands for watching the sports. Generally, playing fields are wide expanses of grass, dirt or sand without many obstructions. More recently, some types of field have begun using a synthetic grass-like material called AstroTurf, some fields are also covered with snow, but its use is often controversial. Today a lot of fields have Next Turf, ProGreen or Field Turf. These Turfs are filled with rubber and/or sand.
There are a variety of different commonly used fields, including:
- American football field
- Association football (soccer) pitch (field)
- Australian rules football playing field
- Baseball field
- Cricket field containing the cricket pitch
- Lacrosse field
- Rugby league playing field (pitch or paddock)
- Rugby union playing field (pitch or paddock)
In other sports, the field of play is called a "court":
- basketball court
- tennis court
- volleyball court
Famous quotes containing the words playing and/or field:
“The playing adult steps sideward into another reality; the playing child advances forward to new stages of mastery....Child’s play is the infantile form of the human ability to deal with experience by creating model situations and to master reality by experiment and planning.”
—Erik H. Erikson (20th century)
“A field of water betrays the spirit that is in the air. It is continually receiving new life and motion from above. It is intermediate in its nature between land and sky.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)