An expert jury has handed out the award for the "Pitch of the Year" for the past season 2016/17 for the excellent quality of pitches. The awards were handed out to Borussia Dortmund's pitch in the SIGNAL IDUNA PARK for the Bundesliga and VfB Stuttgart for their pitch in the Mercedes-Benz Arena in the 2.Bundesliga.

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This award washanded out for the fourth time. In the Bundesliga the previous year's winner VfL Wolfsburg came in second place, Rasenballsport Leipzig came in third place, who won the award for the 2.Bundesliga in 2015/16. 1. FC Heidenheim came in second place in the 2. Bundesliga in front of VfL Bochum 1848.

The award ceremony will be part of the 10. Information Meeting for Greenkeppers which will take place on the 5/6. September in the Munich Allianz Arena.

The grading via the three members selected from the German Pitch Association (DRG e.V.) is based on the three block evaluation system of sport, jury evaluation and grading and also the self-assessment by the stadium greenkeepers . For the grading criteria sport the captains of both clubs and the referees for every Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliuga game gave their assessment of the condition of the pitch using a scale from 1 (bad) to 5 (excellent). Adding the average grades per game results in a points table.

The team responsible for looking after the pitch for BVB is under the supervision of the greenkeeper Willi Droste (photo below with Roman Weidenfeller).

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