Most liked posts in thread: Artificial pitches - is it time for rethink?

Considering (as everyone is aware of) the weather we have had since November the pitch has stood up well. There have been some days when we have had no light at all, time to get the grow lights out of the West Yorkshire Police stores that have seized from the busted cannabis farms. With the planned solar panels being installed it’s a win win

 

The pitch has been very good in the previous couple of seasons and it’s helped digging it up every summer and reseeding,which they did last summer to be fair. It’s been an exceptional wet winter and playing the Stockport match on a very wet day has cost us this season.

 

I played on one for the first time last year and it was a revelation. It's completely different to a grass pitch. The bounce of the ball is hard to predict and your foot just doesn't glide across the surface like on a earthen pitch. As soon as your boot touches the ground it's gripped solid, as I discovered to my cost. There's no give at all. It means you have to play standing up, if that makes sense, and it's impossible to play side on to an opponent. It transforms the way you have to play. Not for me.

 

There should be a conversation but too many people are stuck with the stereotype of the pitches from the likes of Luton that you mention. Technology for both natural grass pitches and artificial pitches has improved so much in the last 20 years. With so many park pitches being sold off by councils and lots of grassroots teams struggling for a pitch then a club like ours having a 3G pitch is not only great for us on the pitch, it helps us massively financially and it would help out so many local clubs. If a 3G pitch is good enough for the Champions League it should be good enough for League 2. There is a myth that they cause more injuries and not good for the knees but currently there is no proof to back that up.
3G pitches are no different to grass pitches, there are good ones and bad ones so if it was to come in then you just need to set minimum standards for installation and maintenance.

 

It’s the frequency and ferocity of the events. That’s the difference. My 10 year old grandson knows that!

 

They've been blamed for multiple knee injuries over the years and I'm sure I read a report that the ban is due to player safety. I'll see if I can dig it out later.

 

Yeah, never had rain and floods in winter did we

 

I thought modern day pitches were about 70/30 artificial to grass anyway. Could be wrong.

 

Quite an unintended pun Dave?

 

Massively agree. Technology has come on massively. Its becoming an absolute necessity at an amateur level for training. The amount of games being called off is getting silly. Those who say no, are living in the past. Change is always awkward

 

Exceptional is becoming the norm. 8 of the 10 wettest ever winters recorded have happened in the last 20 years. This year is set to be the warmest and wettest ever recorded.

 

How much does it costs to reseed the pitch etc each year. How much does it cost to hire out local pitches for academy games, etc etc. Everything suddenly can be done at Valley Parade. V little ongoing pitch maintenance. You pay over a certain period of time but very quickly pays itself back

 

The problem is the sheer amount of conflicting research. It only takes a quick Google and you have polarised opinions on the potential of artificial pitches to cause injuries.

Perhaps what it needs is the FA/PL/EFL to finance a long term, unbiased study into this and it's feasibility.

That said, I'm not sure any more postponements are happening then usually happen around this time of year and I don't believe it's a significant issue that desperately needs resolving.

 

I don't think I've played on a real grass pitch for years due to Estonia mostly having artificial pitches. Only a few of the top league teams play on grass here, while the rest of the others use 4G. It's due to the fact that grass doesn't grow or recover too well in these Baltic conditions. At first they completely threw me, as the ball zips very fast off the surface and bounces very high. I played on some pretty sub standard Soviet "astro" pitches which didn't have any underlay underneath, and the ball bounces for miles! I also used to laugh at the players wearing trackie bottoms to play in, until I went for a slide tackle and lost most of the skin off my knees. You don't see anyone sliding in over here, which is why the football is very technical but not that physical. The modern new advanced pitches are much better, with a lot longer length of "grass" and feel to the game. The days of Luton Town, QPR, Oldham and Preston North End (have I missed anyone?) type pitches are no more. I have however, really suffered with knee and ankle pain. The hardness of the playing surface is certainly not so great on the old joints. Then again, I've played on some right potato fields in the UK on real grass, so its swings and roundabouts really.

I think that lower league clubs in England should be given the choice. The combined stuff where plastic and grass are knitted together is the way forward. The game is getting so commercial these days, that I think the FA will endorse anything that doesn't mean they lose money from cancellations and so on.

 

Well it is lashing it down atm. That pitch could be a mud pit when we play on it tonight.

 

Just put a few hundred sponges on it, it'll be reyt

 

No. **** off.... Zzzzz

 

Drove past Marley on my way to the game and there is a state of the art 4g pitch there, good enough for semi pro-so cannot see why not good enough for the EFL. Don't they have them in Scottish football pro leagues?

 

SPL are looking at banning them from next year