I spend a lot of time on the sidelines watching my kids play soccer, baseball, you name it. And for the longest time I was looking for a good and easy source of shade for those days when it’s very sunny and hot. I already had a beach umbrella and a market umbrella, but wasn’t able to get them into the hard turf. I was so happy when I found the in ground umbrella stand shown below.
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Made of heavy steel, they are easy to push into the grass, and hold well. Then just slide your umbrella rod into the in ground umbrella stand, and now you have shade. It then becomes much easer to read, use your iphone, etc… It is important to check that the diameter of the shade umbrella you plan to use will fit into this in ground anchor.
Then after the game, simple remove the umbrella from the stand, and then pull the stand out of the turf; it comes out pretty easily. And because the spike that goes into the turf aren’t that thick, it doesn’t leave a large hole in the field. In fact, it’s probably helps the grass by providing a bit of aeration.
Anyway, I’ve had great luck with these stands and hope you will too.
Patio umbrella parts such as these type of inground stands tend to work best with smaller to medium sized shade umbrellas. They might not be a good choice for a monster 11 ft market umbrella and even a 9 foot umbrella may be too big for it, both due to the pole diameter of very large market umbrella perhaps being too wide, and the high wind load large umbrellas place on their stand. As mentioned above, at events such as soccer games having an in ground umbrella stand can be very useful.