Germany's first artificial turf baseball field in Paderborn's Ahorn Ballpark featuring Green Technology

A pilot project with exemplary character

Located near the Ahorn Sports Park in Paderborn, the Ahorn Ballpark is where we installed Germany's first artificial turf baseball field – a pioneering project in many respects, of which we are particularly proud. The Ahorn Ballpark is one of the first baseball fields in Germany and is home to the Untouchables Paderborner Baseball Club e.V., also known as the Paderborn U’s. Their presence here is no coincidence, as it was the computer pioneer Heinz Nixdorf who not only initiated the construction of the Ahorn Sports Arena, providing company premises for the project, but also brought his enthusiasm for baseball from his time in the USA to Paderborn. The first men's team, founded in 1990, has been playing in the Bundesliga since 1996, enjoying considerable success with six championships. The love for this quintessential American game has been passed down the family line: Son Martin Nixdorf is now the U’s second chairman, and grandson Lasse Nixdorf plays on the U18 team. In addition to the successful men's team, the club also runs a youth and a softball division. The Untouchables play their home games in the Ahorn Ballpark, which was built in 1997 and has been hailed as Germany's most beautiful baseball field at the time. The facility comprises three playing fields, with the main stadium accommodating around 1,200 spectators. One of these fields has now been transformed from a natural grass and clay field into a dedicated artificial turf field. It serves as a multifunctional field for youth softball and baseball, suitable for both training and games. For this, we used our LigaTurf Cross, which combines smooth and textured filaments. This innovative turf merges the advantages of both types into an ideal surface for various ball sports. According to the layout of the baseball field, part of the surface is red, while the other features a bi-color combination of lime green and field green. The turf also incorporates the Untouchables’ logo, proudly worn by the women's softball team as well. Users of our LigaTurf Cross benefit from the look and feel of natural grass, which has been successfully used worldwide, thanks to the smooth filaments. At the same time, the textured filaments of the LigaGrass Pro CP reduce maintenance efforts, stabilize the infill, and provide greater turf volume. These are all advantages that players and youth athletes in Paderborn can enjoy. The ideal elastic base is ensured by our ET PolyBase GT, our latest and most advanced product for creating the perfect elastic layer. A synthetic turf system typically consists of the turf itself, infill granules, and an elastic sub-base or elastic layer. Together, they ensure the desired playing characteristics, durability, and longevity. Especially the elastic layers contribute to player safety, energy restitution, and the preservation of playing properties. Additionally, the elastic layer not only guarantees sport-specific functionality but also ensures consistent drainage, contributing to the prevention of soil sealing. Our latest Green Technology innovation combines the well-known advantages of in-situ elastic layers with the ecological benefits of a recycled product and a revolutionary technology for climate-friendly CO2 utilization. This further enhances the already excellent environmental performance of our elastic layers. Transforming this area into a solely artificial turf field thus represents not just a pilot project for baseball in Paderborn but also a green future for sports in general. In Germany, baseball is undoubtedly still a niche sport – unlike in the United States or Canada, where baseball is a popular pastime that captivates billions of fans in massive stadiums and on screens. With the first artificial turf baseball field in Germany, we aim to help increase the sport’s popularity curve here as well. This includes not only appropriate training opportunities but also intensive and well-organized youth development. Paderborn is a pioneer in this aspect, as the U’s have since 2013 focused solely on homegrown talent, foregoing professional players from other baseball nations. Moreover, since 2011, the U’s have run a baseball department within the Paderborn Sports Boarding School. Their dedicated youth development has already earned them the prestigious "Grünes Band" award twice for outstanding talent development in clubs, presented by Commerzbank and the German Sports Association.