for a very long time playing sports was generally considered a daytime activity with youngsters sweating it out on the grounds through the day even then say during holidays one would find playgrounds considerably empty during the nights but that seems to have changed with the arrival of sports grounds with turf facilities and indoor badminton courts in the city facilities like these have extended chennais playtime till late in the night as some are even open 24 hoursit started just before covid around 2019 the it crowd was the first ones to prefer it taking latenight slots out slots are cheaper during nights since its not the peak hours now many badminton courts are also open 24 hours people even play till 3am during weekends people are out till midnight but on weekdays it actually extends beyond that says sanjay of fitnestwe regularly play football between 8pm and 10pm on mondays and fridays we prefer night hours because it doesnt interfere with our office hours we can finish work and then head to the ground we want to keep fit and this helps us the turfs are wellmaintained exclusive spaces and we can play late at night too as they come with lights says sakthi k naidu a citybased consultantmost of the people who come to these turfs at night are working professionals they wont be able to come in the mornings due to work seconds sanjay the slots at these venues come with a fixed price and can be booked in person or via apps that facilitate these bookings piyali sarkar marketing head at playo app says weve seen a 170 increase in the number of games being played in chennai compared to precovid times 127 increase in the number of games being played post 4pm and a 376 increase in the number of games being played post 9pm weve also added 100 venues in chennai over the last two yearspeople working in the hospitality sector play late in the night says anand manager turf 137 they come by around 11pm they can play both cricket and football depending on their choice at our facility he addskevin akash operations manager tika taka chips in we are open till 1am and during fridays and saturdays our slots are full people play both cricket and football during the night depending on their preference but for manoj kumar badminton is the goto sport rather than group games like football or cricket which need more number of people its easier to gather twothree people for a good game of badminton especially after work says the engineeranother advantage of these facilities is that they help unite sporting circles across the city a lot of them play tournaments with players from different areas this is an opportunity that most of us dont get after college says sakthi and adds the chances of injury are comparatively lesser with these turfs so they pull in more peoplefor a very long time playing sports was generally considered