The Pitch…..what can be done about it?

Sadly the bastards have us over a barrel and they know that just can never fathom the brains behind the original deal

 

Maybe Stevenage fans took it up because they have an owner who cares unlike the invisible man

 

I'm sure there will be many on here who attended this game can anyone tell us where it was played and who against, that's proper rain.

 

The current situation regarding the ground is a Catch 22 for both sides. The Club has no practical or affordable alternative to renting, and is unlikely to in the foreseeable. Without the Club as leaseholder, the ground is redundant and the land I guess will be some of the cheapest you can buy in England, with similar sized plots of brownfield land sitting derelict nearby.

The hope is the Club can drive a hard bargain on its rent and the weather picks up so this thread is forgotten again until the winter.

 

If there were any semblance of ambition and competence across the club, council and the Bulls, there’d be an obvious, joint investment case for building a modern facility for both clubs to use that could include leisure facilities to attract wider business revenue. But therein lies the rub.

 

Just looked it up. Costs between 1/2 million and a million. They are popular but I imagine they will need specialist maintenance.

 

This is from last night apparently. real Salt Lake vs Los Angeles F.C

 

Come on, Council and Bulls both skint.

 

It would be great, but I can't see how a viable business case could be made in the current economic climate.

An investment of what, maybe £30-50m, for two businesses that barely generate £10m annual revenue with no profit. Any growth in revenue would be swallowed up by additional costs. Would need maybe £5m a year minimum to service the debt, even if funding could be obtained.

I believe there was an opportunity to do something in the mid 00s, but that time has gone.

 

As far as I’m aware there were no postponements due to waterlogged pitch between the work in summer 2018 and the start of this year. So that’s 6.5 years of the groundworks functioning effectively, despite wetter winters in recent years than previously. And throughout that time, as @wetherbywhaler has said, our pitch has been consistently commended for its top quality condition.
This winter, and February in particular, has been as wet, if not wetter, than any I can remember since moving to Bradford in 1980. The question is, is this an exceptional situation that will only arise once or twice a decade (in which case it’s probably not worth investing mega bucks to remedy) or is this going to become the new norm?
I can see why the club might baulk at spending millions on a PL/Championship grade pitch for a ground it doesn’t own. But @Bigrod ‘s suggestion of inflatable covers that can be used on an occasional basis during very heavy rain spells seems like something the club ought to be investigating, for a comparatively modest cost.

 

Just looking at the Bradford weather forecast and virtually no rain Monday or Tuesday so hopefully the covers are off.

 

I always smile when I've watched a Premier League game or on the odd occasion Championship game and they are having the post match autopsy and behind the panelists are up to ten guys already doing work on the pitch 5 or so minutes after the game has finished, as you say its not just expensive to install but expensive to maintain.

 

Those are Desso pitches, part artificial. The guys working aren’t mowing they are hoovering up the loose grass as if the artificial lies on top it does rot away but stops sunlight getting to the real grass which then dies.

 

So with the problematic foundations under the VP pitch coupled with us not owning the ground means the hundreds of thousands required to correct this issue is a non starter, which leaves us with the 1 and only solution and that is to simply stop excessive amounts of water getting on the pitch in the first place, surely pitch covers fit for purpose plus expenses for storage like maybe having to remove first couple rows of Midland Rd stand can't be more than say £500k?? Yes that's a lot of money but the Lewis and BSM cup monies should near enough cover this, and once bought it's an asset the club own so not dead money, and as I said previously a continuous rain water drain channel all around outside of pitch to sweep away what lands on covers which would be directed away to natural drainage point, this wouldn't cost much at all to install on the grand scheme of things.

 

Unfortunately we aren't swimming in dosh either. Forgive the reference to water.

 

Wow as "yosser" would say "gis a job I can do that" put the nets up as well, classic Boys from the Black Stuff .

 

Sensible post. Can't think where the club would propose sourcing the extra revenue/ capital from to be able to contemplate this sort of venture, or any other major investment for that matter.

Just to add, Rochdale at home last Feb (think it was) should have been postponed, in my view, due to water logging. So yes, apart from that, unless the 2018 work has recently failed, the recent postponements are an anomaly due to this winter's rainfall.

 

Yep, no new stadium is ever getting built in this city, there is simply no money available and no private investment is ever seen in this city.