Will the new Wembley pitch ever be any good?

Something fundamentally is wrong if they can't keep the pitch in a good state after 10 previous attempts
 
divaboy said:
Surely it can't be that hard to keep some grass growing can it ?
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It's actually very difficult indeed in modern football stadia, one of the biggest challenges is air flow as they get very little wind at pitch level which is essential for a healthy strong growth.

Wembley is a challenging environment for the groundsman made even harder with the number of events taking place in a variety of sports which need different turf conditions combined with concerts and silly things like the race of champions. I'm not sure they will ever get if properly sorted which is a real shame as the home of football should have a dreamy surface not a moonscape.
 
Robboftw said:
They need to get a proper groundsman in, and not the FA Chief Executive's son's friends brother's dad.
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Yup, said that in another thread, I'd put money on way to many people on the "team" involved with research, management, and people who actually do the work all being Nephews of people high up in the FA.

Yes its not fantastically easy to keep a pitch in great nick, yet dozens of teams do it for years on end with no problem.

It SHOULD have been factored into the design for the stadium, if it wasn't, it was just another in a long line of idiotic decisions.

The thing is, they CAN find the right people to fix it, and rather than spending 100k's a pop to relay it, just for it to end up in the same crappy condition they should just fix it once and for all.

They should also prevent it being used so often as its partly the schedual thats supposed to be why its getting so battered.

Prefer millenium stadium, in every way except location, trip back from wales after the Charity shield was awful, after losing to Chelsea aswell :( Live almost round the corner from Wembley.
 
Hows the millenium stadium hold out?

Can't recall the pitch ever looking nearly as bad as the farce seen this weekend at wembley.

Asking because the main moan coming out from the fa seems to be about the multi purpose use's. Knowing for a fact that that they collect it up in cardiff much the same.

Been there many times for the speedway gp's and seen it all stacked up in the corners.
 
You have to let grass, grow and bed, you just cant keep ripping having concerts on it etc.

FA over spent the budget so have to claw back money from any sort of mickey mouse event.
 
a1ex2001 said:
It's actually very difficult indeed in modern football stadia, one of the biggest challenges is air flow as they get very little wind at pitch level which is essential for a healthy strong growth.

Wembley is a challenging environment for the groundsman made even harder with the number of events taking place in a variety of sports which need different turf conditions combined with concerts and silly things like the race of champions. I'm not sure they will ever get if properly sorted which is a real shame as the home of football should have a dreamy surface not a moonscape.
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Ok next obvious question surely a decent designer could let "airflow" through at san siro don't the gaps between the tiers to help this? I just can't believe its that difficult maybe joe bloggs with a sit on lawn mower :p But not for someone/some company who's sole purpose is to look after some grass :confused:
 
FA are desperate for money and are loaning it out to anybody that wants a go there. If you want it good for football you can't have loads of concerts and e.g. American football there too.
 
Greenlizard0 said:
FA are desperate for money and are loaning it out to anybody that wants a go there. If you want it good for football you can't have loads of concerts and e.g. American football there too.
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Wasn't having [concerts] public events there part of the conditions of receiving some government money?

Didn't Arsenal or Man Utd (someone anyway) pay the Melbourne cricket groundsman a chunk of money to come over and show them how to grow good grass?
 
Possibly, but probably not recently as both have had awesome pitches for quite some time, I've forgotten who it was, was it Chelsea who had a sand pitch for one game a few years back. I get the impression it was a Ipswich vs Chelsea game, just can't remember which ground it was at.


Had the FA not managed to massively overspend on the stadium they wouldn't be so desparate to make some money back, IIRC they were spending something like 2million a year on cleaning, maintaining and security on the old stadium for what 2 years before they even finally got around to knocking it down. Then you had the part of the roof collapsing and other crap going on. It shouldn't have cost much more than Arsenals new ground, but ended up costing a shedload more, can't actually remember how much it cost though.

If they were going to pimp it out like a whore they really should have done something like had the pitch retractable and let concerts and things happen without the pitch being there.
 
I'm sure some interviews have had people saying Arsenals pitch is one of if not the best pitch in the EPL. Think it was James Milner that said it a few weeks ago.

Maybe they should ask them for some advice.
 
platypus said:
Wasn't having [concerts] public events there part of the conditions of receiving some government money?

Didn't Arsenal or Man Utd (someone anyway) pay the Melbourne cricket groundsman a chunk of money to come over and show them how to grow good grass?
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Not sure if that was particularly directed at me, but if that's the case (having to have concerts there) doesn't help things. Though saying that, I'm sure there were concerts in the old Wembley and there weren't such issues with the pitch.

As said I think it's just been over worked with a larger combination of rougher sports being asked to play alongside football. It doesn't surprise me to find that this guy's having a tough time though which is understandable.
 
R34P3R said:
I'm sure some interviews have had people saying Arsenals pitch is one of if not the best pitch in the EPL. Think it was James Milner that said it a few weeks ago.

Maybe they should ask them for some advice.
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Yup, Arsenal designed the stadium around the pitch, while the FA did it the other way round. When the emirates was being designed they actually reduced the capacity to allow for better pitch conditions.

They also spend a fortune on massive banks of lights that simulate the sun which automatically track across the pitch every day for hours, i can't remember how much it was but just the monthly running costs are huge, but necessary for a good surface as it doesn't always get even sunlight.

I think the FA should be ashamed of themselves, it's not difficult to get the pitch right if you plan it properly, but they acted like amateurs and didn't. I visit Arizona a lot and the NFL stadium there has a pitch which automatically lifts up and transfers out of the stadium every day so it can get natural light and wind...and that cost half as much as wembley.

Personally i think the only way to fix it is to tear up the entire pitch and base and rebuild it, i believe there are fundamental design problems with the underlay and drainage.
 
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