Football Field Covers: Types, Sizes & Cost Guide
Football field covers run anywhere from about $1,200 for a single weighted sideline section to $11,000 or more for a tarp that blankets the entire playing surface. The wide spread exists because "field cover" describes three different products: rain tarps that keep water off the grass, sideline covers that protect the highest-wear strips of turf, and winter growth blankets that keep grass alive through the cold months. Buy the wrong one and you either overspend by thousands or watch your turf get chewed up anyway.
This guide breaks down each type, the exact sizes that fit a regulation field, and real published pricing, so you can put a defensible number in a budget request before you ever ask for a quote.
The Three Types of Football Field Covers
Every product sold as a football field cover falls into one of three categories, and they are not interchangeable. Rain covers are waterproof tarps deployed before storms to keep the playing surface dry for games. Sideline covers are long, narrow runs of weighted material that shield the team areas, the 15 to 20 feet of turf that takes more cleat traffic than anywhere else on the field. Growth blankets are permeable fabrics left on natural grass through winter to hold heat and prevent winterkill.
| Type | Job | Material | When it is on the field |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full-field rain tarp | Keep the surface dry and playable | Waterproof woven poly or vinyl | Hours to days before events |
| Sideline cover | Protect team-area turf and carry branding | Weighted vinyl mesh or poly blanket | Game day through the season |
| Winter growth blanket | Hold soil heat, prevent winterkill | Breathable spun or woven fabric | December through March |
A fourth product sometimes wears the same name: event flooring that protects turf from chairs and stages during graduations. That is a flooring system, not a cover, and it solves a different problem. There are also automated and inflatable protection systems for facilities that deploy covers mechanically, which we compare in our automated field protection covers buyer's guide.
Full-Field Covers and Rain Tarps: Materials That Matter
Material weight is the single biggest driver of how a full-field tarp performs and what it costs. Stock woven polyethylene covers in the 6 oz to 12 mil range are the workhorses of high school football: light enough for a crew of eight to twelve people to deploy, heavy enough to survive several seasons. Vinyl builds in the 13 oz to 22 oz range weigh two to three times more, resist abrasion better, and show up mostly in college and pro stadiums with dedicated grounds crews.
Waterproof is not automatically better. A sealed tarp left on natural grass for more than two or three days traps heat and smothers the turf, which is why grounds managers pull rain covers as soon as the weather clears. If the cover will sit for a week or more, you want a breathable or mesh construction that lets air and moisture move.
Anchoring is the spec buyers miss most often. Staked covers cannot be used on synthetic turf, because stakes void the carpet warranty the moment they punch through the backing. For turf fields, choose weighted covers with sand- or chain-filled edges, or plan on sandbags every few feet along the perimeter. FieldCover™ football field tarps are built to order in either configuration, sized to the exact footprint you need, and printed with team branding so the cover works as a spirit statement instead of a gray sheet of plastic.
Sideline Covers: Mesh vs. Blanket Style
Sideline covers come in two constructions, and the choice comes down to drainage versus insulation. Weighted vinyl mesh covers, like GatorMesh™ football sideline covers, use a drainage-mesh weave that lets rain pass straight through to the turf, so water never pools where players stand. The weighted construction means no sandbags or stakes, which is why mesh is the default choice for synthetic turf sidelines.
Blanket-style covers, like SidelineShield™ blanket style sideline covers, use a solid 15 oz polypropylene fabric that adds a layer of cushioning and insulation on top of the protection. The trade-off is that solid fabric sheds water to the edges rather than draining through.
Mesh covers are also the branding play. GatorMesh panels print in full color across 13 standard colors, so the 150 feet of material in front of your bleachers can carry the school wordmark, sponsor logos, or both. Blanket-style covers come in gray only and cannot take logos. For the rest of the game-day perimeter setup, including signs and windscreens, see our football sideline setup guide.
What Size Football Field Cover Do You Need?
A regulation football field is 360 feet long by 160 feet wide including both 10-yard end zones, which comes to 57,600 square feet, and that dimension is identical for high school, college, and the NFL per the official NFHS field diagram. The goal-to-goal playing surface alone is 300 by 160 feet, or 48,000 square feet. Almost nobody covers all of it for rain protection, which is why stock tarps come in the sizes below.
| Stock cover size | Square feet | What it actually covers |
|---|---|---|
| 150' × 80' | 12,000 | Half the playing width; center-field protection between the hashes |
| 160' × 75' | 12,000 | Full width, about 25 yards of length; midfield or a logo zone |
| 200' × 80' | 16,000 | Half width, two-thirds of field length |
| 160' × 300' | 48,000 | Full goal-to-goal playing surface |
| 50'–150' × 15'–20' sideline runs | 750–3,000 each | Team areas in front of each bench |
Where each cover size actually lands on a regulation 360 by 160 foot field.
Sideline covers are ordered per section, not per field. A standard team area runs about 150 feet along the bench, so covering both sidelines means two 150-foot sections or four 75-foot sections. Custom sizing matters more than it seems: a cover cut to your exact bench depth lies flat, drains properly, and does not leave a tripping seam, which is why made-to-measure sections are worth the modest premium over stock cuts.
Football Field Cover Costs: Real Numbers
Most manufacturers hide pricing behind quote forms, so here are the numbers they will not print. Stock 12-mil woven poly field tarps run about $0.20 to $0.25 per square foot in national tarp suppliers' published catalogs, which works out to roughly $2,450 for a 150' × 80' cover and $11,400 for a full 160' × 300' playing-surface tarp. Custom-printed and heavier-duty builds quote above those floors.
BigSigns publishes section pricing for GatorMesh™ weighted covers, the same weighted drainage-mesh construction used in its football sideline covers. These prices include the weighted edges, grommets every 36 inches, and custom sizing:
| Section length | Vinyl mesh (13 colors, logos available) | 15 oz poly blanket style (gray only) |
|---|---|---|
| 50' | $1,183 | $1,713 |
| 75' | $1,758 | $2,568 |
| 100' | $2,355 | $3,415 |
| 125' | $2,950 | $4,198 |
| 150' | $3,525 | $5,008 |
Published section pricing: vinyl mesh vs 15 oz blanket style.
Three worked examples make the budget math concrete. Covering both team areas of a high school field with 150-foot vinyl mesh sections costs about $7,050 at published pricing. A midfield rain tarp in stock 12-mil poly adds $2,500 to $3,000. A full both-sidelines-plus-playing-surface program lands in the $15,000 to $20,000 range depending on material and printing, which is why most programs phase it: sidelines first, because that is where the turf damage and the sponsor visibility both live.
Full-field FieldCover™ tarps and blanket-style SidelineShield™ sections are quoted to your exact dimensions; recent SidelineShield sections have run roughly $1,000 to $2,000 each. Custom logo printing is priced with the quote rather than as a flat adder. Browse the current lineup on the football field tarps and sideline covers collection to match a configuration to your field before you request numbers.
Winter Turf Blankets and Growth Covers
Growth blankets are the one cover type backed by hard agronomic data. University of Kentucky turfgrass extension reports that covered bermudagrass fields green up two to three weeks earlier in spring, and that covers should go back on whenever temperatures are expected to drop below about 20 to 22 degrees F. The same UK extension guidance prices winter cover fabrics from roughly $920 to $5,663 per acre, and a football field is about 1.3 acres.
For most football programs the practical takeaway is timing. Blankets go down in early December after the season ends and come off in late March, so they never conflict with rain tarps or sideline covers. If your field is bermudagrass in a transition-zone state like Kentucky, Tennessee, or North Carolina, a growth blanket is often the difference between playable spring turf and a re-sodding invoice.
A Buying Checklist for Athletic Directors
Run through these seven checks before you sign a purchase order. They cover the specification mistakes that generate most warranty claims and re-orders.
- Measure the actual footprint, not the field. Bench areas, logo zones, and high-wear strips each have their own dimensions. A 150' × 20' sideline section is a different purchase from a 12,000 sqft midfield tarp.
- Match anchoring to your surface. Synthetic turf means weighted covers only. Natural grass can take stakes, but weighted edges save your crew the hardware step every deployment.
- Choose drainage or insulation deliberately. Mesh drains through and suits rain-heavy regions; solid blanket fabric insulates and cushions but sheds water to its edges.
- Confirm grommet spacing. Every 36 inches is the standard that keeps a weighted cover flat in wind; wider spacing invites billowing and edge lift.
- Claim the branding real estate. If the material faces your bleachers or a broadcast camera, printed covers turn a protection line item into sponsor inventory that can offset the cost.
- Order against your calendar. Custom-printed covers are produced to order, so place orders four to six weeks before your first home game rather than the week of.
- Plan storage before delivery. A folded 150-foot section needs a dry rack or bin; full-field tarps need a roller or a dedicated crew plan for folding.
Match surface and priority to the right construction before requesting quotes.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. How much does a football field cover cost?
2. What size cover do I need for a high school football field?
3. Can you stake a field cover into synthetic turf?
4. Are waterproof or breathable covers better for natural grass?
5. How long do football field covers last?
6. Can field covers be printed with a team logo?
Plan Your Field Protection Before the Season Does It for You
The programs that get covers right price them in July and August, before the first rained-out Friday forces the decision. If you are weighing mesh against blanket style or trying to size a sideline program to a budget number, BigSigns.com offers free design consultation and custom mockups that show your branding on the actual product. Call 800.790.7611 or request a quote online, and a project specialist will spec sizes, materials, and printing for your field.
