Hi Guys, posted on here last year about the pitch . The Dome cover we had in the Prem days has gone as has The Whale/ Blotter. All The Valley has as regards protection is frost covers. I'm led to believe the pitch budget has been reduced over the last 4 seasons with it being slashed dramatically over the last couple. The pitch has the top taken off it and re -seeded every season but I think with the reduced budget they can only afford to take off the bare minimum whereas Prem days they would dig deep and take all the thatch/crap/silt out. I think that's why the pitch doesn't drain as well/ quickly as it used too. It is slightly embarrassing for the club and very frustrating for Paddy as it was his pride and joy and was back to its best before yesterday ! That covers it , if you pardon the pun, having said all that, the pitch played its part in a really good game yesterday !
Why we do not ask the Oval Cricket Ground to loan their equipment to soak up surface water, it is doing nothing this time of year, we are less than an hours drive away.
I posted the following comment on the 'Pitch Inspection' thread:
The club was lucky that the match went ahead today - had it been called off they would have had to provide all the hospitality packages again. They've already got to do that for the re-arranged Doncaster match and to do it again would have been very expensive, especially as I understand that most lounges were full today.
I wonder what would be cheaper - to properly sort out the pitch or to lose money on hospitality.
Unless it was shorthand for "why won't they put their covers on the pitch", in which case it was just a bit lazy.
Does it really matter? I admit I made a few grammar/spelling mistakes for which I apologise but is it really a big issue on a football forum when you clearly knew what I mean. If I'm doing a English test fair enough but this is a football forum.
Making such ridiculous comments about other people's grammar and spelling mistakes is pathetic.
Why we do not ask the Oval Cricket Ground to loan their equipment to soak up surface water, it is doing nothing this time of year, we are less than an hours drive away.
Unless it was shorthand for "why won't they put their covers on the pitch", in which case it was just a bit lazy.
Does it really matter? I admit I made a few grammar/spelling mistakes for which I apologise but is it really a big issue on a football forum when you clearly knew what I mean. If I doing a English test fair enough but this is a football forum.
Making such ridiculous comments about other people's grammar and spelling mistakes is pathetic.
Two weeks ago against Wigan the pitch still looked okay but with the bad weather in that period it seems to have deteriorated badly. Especially in the North East part. Feel so sorry for Paddy who had got the pitch looking really nice this summer and the week after the Donny game it looked ok again.
Two weeks ago against Wigan the pitch still looked okay but with the bad weather in that period it seems to have deteriorate badly. Esspecially in the North East part. Feel so sorry for Paddy who had got the pitch looking really nice this summer and after the Donny game it looked ok the week after.
Unless it was shorthand for "why won't they put their covers on the pitch", in which case it was just a bit lazy.
Does it really matter? I admit I made a few grammar/spelling mistakes for which I apologise but is it really a big issue on a football forum when you clearly knew what I mean. If I'm doing a English test fair enough but this is a football forum.
Making such ridiculous comments about other people's grammar and spelling mistakes is pathetic.
Sorry I don't agree. Yes, we all make spelling mistakes and sometimes grammatical ones as well, but the word "theirs" means something totally different to the word "there's". Its not being pedantic..........what you wrote simply doesn't make sense.
Two weeks ago against Wigan the pitch still looked okay but with the bad weather in that period it seems to have deteriorate badly. Esspecially in the North East part. Feel so sorry for Paddy who had got the pitch looking really nice this summer and after the Donny game it looked ok the week after.
If just covers were placed on the pitch, the grass would not get any light and would struggle to "breathe". In addition the water that accumulates on the top has to go somewhere and i would imagine a complete bitch to remove.
I have no idea why the pitch is so bad, but it needs to be sorted asap
Do you have any idea how much extra would have been needed to have been spent in the summer to avoid these problems?
Are we talking 1000s, 10,000s or 100,000s?
Is there a bit of kit that Paddy needs and if so how much would it cost?
I think the costs vary a lot. The Dome cover cost about £60,000 a year to rent, not sure about the Whale. I'm not 100% sure on this but I think it was 20/30,000 spent on the pitch during the summer and that was for the basic top off the surface, seeded and top dressed. On the other end of the scale Watford's pitch cost well over a million pounds.
Do you have any idea how much extra would have been needed to have been spent in the summer to avoid these problems?
Are we talking 1000s, 10,000s or 100,000s?
Is there a bit of kit that Paddy needs and if so how much would it cost?
I think the costs vary a lot. The Dome cover cost about £60,000 a year to rent, not sure about the Whale. I'm not 100% sure on this but I think it was 20/30,000 spent on the pitch during the summer and that was for the basic top off the surface, seeded and top dressed. On the other end of the scale Watford's pitch cost well over a million pounds.
Blimey! The princes and the paupers of spending on the pitch. Paddy must be exasperated...you can't polish the proverbial!
Unless it was shorthand for "why won't they put their covers on the pitch", in which case it was just a bit lazy.
Does it really matter? I admit I made a few grammar/spelling mistakes for which I apologise but is it really a big issue on a football forum when you clearly knew what I mean. If I'm doing a English test fair enough but this is a football forum.
Making such ridiculous comments about other people's grammar and spelling mistakes is pathetic.
Sorry I don't agree. Yes, we all make spelling mistakes and sometimes grammatical ones as well, but the word "theirs" means something totally different to the word "there's". Its not being pedantic..........what you wrote simply doesn't make sense.
This is pathetic! Leave the guy alone. We all knew what he was saying! get over yourselves!!
I am a keen gardener and my lawn has good drainage, so whenever there is a big downpour the water goes through the grass very quickly. It seems to me that the drainage system at the Valley is very poor. The water just sits on the pitch. To rectify this you will not only have to remove the pitch but install a new drainage system. Which will be costly and time consuming.
It is puzzling because the Valley has always had good drainage, I don't know what has happened to change this.
I am a keen gardener and my lawn has good drainage, so whenever there is a big downpour the water goes through the grass very quickly. It seems to me that the drainage system at the Valley is very poor. The water just sits on the pitch. To rectify this you will not only have to remove the pitch but install a new drainage system. Which will be costly and time consuming.
It is puzzling because the Valley has always had good drainage, I don't know what has happened to change this.
I'm led to believe the pitch budget has been reduced over the last 4 seasons with it being slashed dramatically over the last couple. The pitch has the top taken off it and re -seeded every season but I think with the reduced budget they can only afford to take off the bare minimum whereas Prem days they would dig deep and take all the thatch/crap/silt out. I think that's why the pitch doesn't drain as well/ quickly as it used too.
But what happened in the early 90s when the club was surely just as broke as it is now? We never had such problems then, or is this a result of long term deterioration of the soil/drainage of the pitch on the East side?
And yes, our pitch budget has been reduced, but surely it must be more than the majority of teams in L1 and L2 who have a much better playing surface at the moment.
Unless it was shorthand for "why won't they put their covers on the pitch", in which case it was just a bit lazy.
Does it really matter? I admit I made a few grammar/spelling mistakes for which I apologise but is it really a big issue on a football forum when you clearly knew what I mean. If I'm doing a English test fair enough but this is a football forum.
Making such ridiculous comments about other people's grammar and spelling mistakes is pathetic.
Does it matter? Yes. I literally had to read it 3 times before I could understand the title, and I'm not too daft.
Surely without a pitch, the team can not play the game they are paid to play. The pitch must be the number one prioity for the club. Why pay players, managers and backroom staff large sums of money if they can not play the game.
In the prem days we had a nifty motorised soaker upper. Think it was called a hippo. What happened to that?
I can reveal with authority that the Hippo has been replaced by three men with a fork, and one man with a roller, a sight which I watched with enormous pride at the Doncaster game. Apparently other Clubs are now considering this method including Harrowvians 3rd eleven.
Unless it was shorthand for "why won't they put their covers on the pitch", in which case it was just a bit lazy.
Does it really matter? I admit I made a few grammar/spelling mistakes for which I apologise but is it really a big issue on a football forum when you clearly knew what I mean. If I'm doing a English test fair enough but this is a football forum.
Making such ridiculous comments about other people's grammar and spelling mistakes is pathetic.
Most knew what you meant mate. Some people are just proper busy and have to fill their own ego's and importance via the internet. Really sad.
But what happened in the early 90s when the club was surely just as broke as it is now? We never had such problems then, or is this a result of long term deterioration of the soil/drainage of the pitch on the East side?
And yes, our pitch budget has been reduced, but surely it must be more than the majority of teams in L1 and L2 who have a much better playing surface at the moment.
To be fair, I can remember a game at the Valley, Palace in the cup, evening kick off where the teams were playing through puddles. This was whilst we had reduced capacity so I assume soon after we returned
The pitch is clearly not able to cope with a sustained deluge - and their seem to be more of those than there used to be. How much would rain covers cost?
Comments
I'm led to believe the pitch budget has been reduced over the last 4 seasons with it being slashed dramatically over the last couple.
The pitch has the top taken off it and re -seeded every season but I think with the reduced budget they can only afford to take off the bare minimum whereas Prem days they would dig deep and take all the thatch/crap/silt out. I think that's why the pitch doesn't drain as well/ quickly as it used too.
It is slightly embarrassing for the club and very frustrating for Paddy as it was his pride and joy and was back to its best before yesterday !
That covers it , if you pardon the pun, having said all that, the pitch played its part in a really good game yesterday !
The club was lucky that the match went ahead today - had it been called off they would have had to provide all the hospitality packages again. They've already got to do that for the re-arranged Doncaster match and to do it again would have been very expensive, especially as I understand that most lounges were full today.
I wonder what would be cheaper - to properly sort out the pitch or to lose money on hospitality.
Do you have any idea how much extra would have been needed to have been spent in the summer to avoid these problems?
Are we talking 1000s, 10,000s or 100,000s?
Is there a bit of kit that Paddy needs and if so how much would it cost?
Making such ridiculous comments about other people's grammar and spelling mistakes is pathetic.
http://dan.tobias.name/ dtobias
Snark about how the poster misspelled “grammar” while ranting about others’ language skills.
Local Scrutinizer
If just covers were placed on the pitch, the grass would not get any light and would struggle to "breathe". In addition the water that accumulates on the top has to go somewhere and i would imagine a complete bitch to remove.
I have no idea why the pitch is so bad, but it needs to be sorted asap
I'm not 100% sure on this but I think it was 20/30,000 spent on the pitch during the summer and that was for the basic top off the surface, seeded and top dressed.
On the other end of the scale Watford's pitch cost well over a million pounds.
It is puzzling because the Valley has always had good drainage, I don't know what has happened to change this.
And yes, our pitch budget has been reduced, but surely it must be more than the majority of teams in L1 and L2 who have a much better playing surface at the moment.
I can reveal with authority that the Hippo has been replaced by three men with a fork, and one man with a roller, a sight which I watched with enormous pride at the Doncaster game. Apparently other Clubs are now considering this method including Harrowvians 3rd eleven.