New State-of-the-art Pitch at The Valley

sam3110 · April 26

Charlton Athletic are delighted to confirm that a new state-of-the-art pitch will be installed at The Valley ahead of the 2024/25 season.

The hybrid-stitched Desso pitch will have a much greater durability, meaning it will be in better condition throughout the campaign.

As part of the investment, all women’s first-team league fixtures will be played at The Valley from the 2024/25 season.

The pitch is being paid for by a six-figure investment from the club’s ownership group and a £750,000 grant from the Premier League Stadium Fund, which awards capital grants to clubs to support improvement of their stadium facilities for players, supporters and officials.

Work begins on the pitch in May to ensure everything is in place for the men’s first-team’s final pre-season friendly on Saturday, August 3rd.

Charlton Managing Director James Rodwell said: “We’re delighted that our men’s and women’s first-teams will be playing on a new state-of-the-art pitch at The Valley for the 2024/25 season.

“Our vision for Charlton is for the club to become the most cohesive and sustainable community-driven club in the UK competing at an elite level. For us to reach that level, we need to continue to drive standards on and off the pitch.

“This investment brings our playing surface at The Valley to that elite level. We’re grateful to the club ownership for supporting the vision financially and for the investment from the Premier League Stadium Fund.”

Louise McGing, General Manager of the Women’s team, added: “This is a game-changing moment in the history of Charlton Athletic Women. The Valley is a fantastic stadium and for us to be playing every league match here from next season gives us the perfect platform to continue to grow.”

No.1 in South London · April 26

Fab. Now just add state of the art Charlton Athletic first teams to play on it.

Rothko · April 26

Ownership contribution is somewhere between £500-750k

ShootersHillGuru · April 26

What’s not to like about this.

stoneroses19 · April 26

Great news to read.

ButtleJR · April 26

https://youtu.be/ETrfhSVHOtY?si=ktYkEL_SpnsmU7x6

Looks like it's going to be the same as the Wembley pitch. As well as some club in Surrey...

eastterrace6168 · April 26

All sounds very positive, and will be good to get the Women's team playing at The Valley as well, so well done the SMT and ownership on getting this done...

PopIcon · April 26

Can anyone explain how the money is invested? Eg does it lay the foundation for future seasons or is it all swallowed up in one go?

Rothko · April 26

Everyone in the Premier League has a Desso pitch, so what's left to fix? Floodlights?

killerandflash · April 26

Good news. The current pitch has held up pretty well actually considering all the rain, with just a couple of bare patches near the CE. Clearly it's not good enough to play women's games there every week though.

BFG94 · April 26

Nothing wrong with the old pitch. Not a lot of football played on it this season.

Davo55 · April 26

Positive step forward, although personally I Ioved watching teams play on the old mud heaps of the 70s.

CharltonKerry · April 26

Seems to be great news. Wonder if they will fit a boiler at the same time for the existing underground heating system or will they have to replace that as well.

JamesSeed · April 26

Rothko said:

Ownership contribution is somewhere between £500-750k

'Six figure', so minumum £100,000.

charlton4ever · April 26

Brilliant

ShootersHillGuru · April 26

For such a long time we’ve seen the heart if not the soul ripped out of the club. It looks like we might just be at the beginning of the repair process. Things like this pitch initiative show commitment and forward thinking. Something we’ve not had for a long time. Of course a football club is all about what happens on match days so the summer will tell us much about that too. I’m encouraged.

blackpool72 · April 26

Rothko said:

Everyone in the Premier League has a Desso pitch, so what's left to fix? Floodlights? 1st eleven

Rothko · April 26

JamesSeed said:

Rothko said:

Ownership contribution is somewhere between £500-750k

'Six figure', so minumum £100,000.

Can't be, as the Football Foundation only fund up to 70% and probably in this case 50%

Solidgone · April 26

I’m sure the away team will enjoy playing on the state of the art pitch too…unfortunately.

BR7_addick · April 26

Just worth noting. When the current Ipswich owners came in, they did all this type of stuff, strengthening the foundations and infrastructure. They then built a team to go with it, and as they say the rest is history.

Positive stuff and as many have already said the indications for next season are there.

valleynick66 · April 26

It’s obviously good news but what does this mean ‘the most cohesive and sustainable community-driven club in the UK’? 🤔

valleynick66 · April 26

Interesting dynamic on the size of the grant versus what we put in 750 v 100.

No brainer I guess.

Perhaps the 100k is further offset by staging the Women’s fixtures at the Valley instead of elsewhere with associated cost.

As long as the pitch holds up it’s all good news.

MrOneLung · April 26

all very positive and thank you premier league as well

Rothko · April 26

valleynick66 said:

Interesting dynamic on the size of the grant versus what we put in 750 v 100.

No brainer I guess.

Perhaps the 100k is further offset by staging the Women’s fixtures at the Valley instead of elsewhere with associated cost.

As long as the pitch holds up it’s all good news.

It's not £100k, can't be, at a minimum you're looking at around £500k

shirty5 · April 26

3/4 of a million in grant money. Well done to the club for taking advantage on that

Braziliance · April 26

Nothing to celebrate, word will get around among the local pigeon community, and more of the fuckers will be lording it around on the pitch in search of these premium seeds.

These lot can't get anything right.