Most liked posts in thread: The Pitch

The water is draining away there was no surface water yesterday it’s the state of the pitch with no grass that’s the problem

 

Isn't it something to do with an old wall or somesorts under the pitch?
Basic fact is, it all needs digging up, as far down as they need to, and building up again from bottom to top. There was also some BS about not having enough room to get the cranes in? All sounds like excuses to me. Ambition is all about overcoming obstructions, not blaming/using them as an reason not to progress.

 

You can't have seen the state of the pitch on Friday, the drainage did its job. Its the surface and just below it thats the problem.

 

If you looked close before the first game of the season it had a lack of grass on it. You wouldn't have necessarily noticed it if you sat far away but there were noticeable signs of a lack of grass. Not sure why McCall is wanting to speak about it come the end of the season, the plans should already be in place to lay a fit for purpose surface in the summer.

 

I'm not an expert but I'd expect that relaying a pitch in winter would be difficult, nigh on impossible - new turf needs the right weather to bed in.

There'll be a range of options. We're not going to get pristine levels of pitch condition all through winter, but we need to look at the bare minimum level of investment and maintenance cost needed to keep the pitch at reasonable, professional standards, and then accept that it's an essential operating cost for a football club.

 

The same Watford who had £147m turnover and £9.7m pre tax profit last season?

 

Could we get them to write "defend the ball here" on our pitch so our defence know what to do.

 

Looking

 

Completely agree. If its a million quid, so be it. I'd like to thin our owner would underwrite the cost, given the windfalls we've had from McBurnie. But if not, trim the playing budget by 250k for 4 years. The way we spend on garbage signings, it shouldn't be too much of a sacrifice. I'd gladly trade Anderson, Devine, Mellor and Taylor for a decent pitch.

 

Ive shamlessly nicked this off twitter, but it is in today's Athletic . Believe this would be from Richard Sutcliffe, Jr's pal

 

It didn't work with the Pension Fund - related to Gibbs falling out with Rhodes, but it did work with the club shop. Lawn/Rhodes bought it back at a fraction of the original price, removing the lease payments, and then selling it on to One in a Million. Without that deal, we'd have gone into admin to get out of paying around £1m a year on combined rent.

 

All that proves is Gibb is an astute businessman, something i would expect from a man of his acumen. I agree about your comments regarding the stadium, like any ageing structure maintenance, both long and short term, becomes an issue. It, along with the annual rent, is probably the most contentious issue when renegotiating the lease. As for club moving location, that does happen, more often than not to a new stadium, sometimes out of town such as Bolton. The question in point was not about a new stadium though, it was to potentially move to another city because lease talks have broken down. The only club i could think of thats done that is Coventry and its been a disaster for the club.
Our club has nowhere to go, its either Valley Parade or a new stadium. Both Rhodes and Gibb know this. Both are experienced in negotiation and i expect a new lease to be signed at Valley Parade after protracted talks.

 

Agreed. A disgrace. An embarrassment. Games shouldn't be allowed on a pitch like that. It could very easily lead to a serious injury, let alone the fact that you cant play football on it.

The penalty boxes dont look too bad, but that's because no buggers have been in em for most of the season.

No more excuses, it needs fixing properly in the summer.

 

Yes for losses he was culpable. The club suffered as a result of not putting in checks with the finances - out going / in coming. Naive ? It his club though to do with - what he wants unfortunately.

 

And there you have it RT summed up in a nutshell no budget nothing happens !!
The club have absolutely no imagination no drive and as the illustrious Fordy says no ambition
Get the sales/ marketing department to come up with a scheme to raise the funds that's what they are paid for Its too easy to just sit back and say no budget no pitch. the club needs a shake up from top to bottom but I seriously don't think anyone has either the where with all or more worryingly the interest
no idea where any priorities lie but it's certainly not on advancing the club
SAD !!!!!!!

 

What I'd expect to happen is, as the drop in Season Ticket sales starts to bite, we'll see articles from the club about how they're 'committed to improving the playing surface in the summer' and how the McBurnie windfall in the summer will help. It'll sound great, but itll lack specifics around the level of investment or longer term benefits.

Then, in 12 months time when its crap again, we'll have articles which harp back to the financial damage done by Rahic, how the Money we received in the summer was crucial in being able to give the likes of Akpan and Anderson new contracts, and how reeeeaaalllly fixing the pitch is properly hard and expensive.

 

Problem is, who is likely to spend millions on a place you dont own.

It is imperative to me that the next owners, whenever that is, makes plans to buy the ground back

 

Clearly you'll be aware of FRI leases which are common practice in commercial property.
I'd put money on this being the case with VP

 

There is a market, Rod, and firms that supply such covers. David Dowse and I looked at this in the past and I recall Paula Watson has also looked at it.
The problem is that they are hugely expensive. Most operate on a tent basis with hot air blowers to keep them off the playing surface by being inflated.
When we have looked it has always been for a specific game when weather threatened. I have forgotten the cost so won't guess as some eagle eye on here will be quick to have a more informed opinion, no doubt, but I seem to remember a week's hire was well into five figures, excluding the running cost and purchase was astronomic.