Artificial pitches - is it time for rethink?

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.

 

Why would an attacking player hoof it? Think about it. He is already up the pitch... come on. Even a 7 year old would have thought about that before writing it

 

Watching the FL highlights last night there is no doubt ours was the worst pitch on display.
I am not qualified to know what is best, (like most of our posters) but we need something sorting other than reseeding every year and I'm sure it will not be cheap.

 

Bring back the mud diamonds we used to play on from January to May. We had some belting matches in the ankle deep stuff.

 

I think you're right. I don't think the FL will ever bring them in and I too read somewhere that they can cause pressure injuries.

 

I play on them every other week and as others have said, the ball bounces differently to on grass.

its a synthetic surface at the end of the day and not ideal for slide tackling and diving on.

watched an SPL game a few months ago - might have been Kilmarnock - and it just doesn’t look right.

Not for me, Clive.

 

Jesus, grass seed prices have gone up.

 

I read that a Desso pitch is about a million quid. City ain’t getting one of them.

 

They are a nightmare for injuries. Dunno if anyone else is an NFL fan, but watching some of the talk shows towards the end of last season, there were studies of the ridiculous amount of ligament injuries that are happening in the NFL and across what types of pitch and when they started zooming up in number and its around the time this blended artificial turf crap came into the dome stadiums. Where as grounds like Green Bays and Buffalos, just pure turf all outdoor have barely any. The newer LA stadium has had stupid amounts of knee injuries, a lot blame the turf there.

I don't think they have said what they are going to do turf wise for the world cup out there just yet. Most stadiums selected in the US for it are the NFL grounds and most selected only have artificial turf. They'll have to lay proper turf and then relay the old NFL turf within the space of about 6 weeks.

 

One issue i have read with artificial pitches, is the drainage has to be good , so that's us out, especially as the pitch alone could be nearing £1million.

 

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

 

At least it is a level playing field for both teams. I think Newports pitch is a bit of a quagmire also, but probably not as bad as VP

 

Most Premier clubs use the Desso system now for a few years including both Leeds and Huddersfield with no increase of injuries and I suspect less than a muddy pitch previously used, We ourselves train on a 4g artificial pitch at times at Rawdon so we are well used to it, The cost is the main drawback but if your ambition is to be a successful club you have to invest in your own product as the main clubs in the country have done

 

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.

 

Guessing that is including removing current artificial, puttting grass in, putting under soil heating in, sorting somewhere to train etc

 

For Info on Desso Grandmaster artificial hybrid pitches
Home - GrassMaster Solutions

 

Is part of the problem down to how short the grass is cut? It looks really cropped like a flock of sheep are kept on it. I would have thought it needs to be a min of 1" high but looks about 1/4". Not an expert but it must be a consideration.