Our Butt Ugly Sand Pit

[Brighty]

SFS has been completely relaid since Sydney's last game. Why do we have to put up with this shit!!!!

I honestly can't see this happening now even if they wanted to due to the fact we don't have any consecutive away games until the end of the season

 

[Forum Phoenix]

They were working on it today, namely more sand down the skid mark it looked like...

 

[adz]

Browntongue Stadium?

Maybe instead of sand...

 

[scottmac]

I got the shits on Saturday when one of my Sydney FC mates (i use that term loosely) gave me a hard time over the pitch, so i emailed the stadium management. Could i be any more of a rebel?

The basic response was that BT stadiums hands are tied when it comes to this matter, that the council are responsible for the contract to maintain and that GCC do not have the funds to returf the pitch as happens elswhere.


They have asked for a response from the contractor and will forward to me once they get it. From what they understand there are a lot of contributing factors as to why the pitch seems to be so hard to get right. Looking forward to hearing what the contractor has to say about it.

Maybe the only way to get a decent surface will be a move of location. Did they have room at the COE site for a stadium? 

 

[Paolo]

Pitch hasnt been relayed in 6 years i think it is, when it is supposed to be re turfed every year. Work was done during the 6 weeks closure but was 'apparently' not enough time as it was stated that they need an absolute minimum of 6 weeks to get neccesary works done.

Pitched looked gash but apparently all but the area in front of the tunnel was actually alright to play on and will only improve.

 

[scottmac]

Pitch hasnt been relayed in 6 years i think it is, when it is supposed to be re turfed every year. Work was done during the 6 weeks closure but was 'apparently' not enough time as it was stated that they need an absolute minimum of 6 weeks to get neccesary works done.

Pitched looked gash but apparently all but the area in front of the tunnel was actually alright to play on and will only improve.

Makes it hard to believe when the SFS is completely re-turfed in 28 days doesn't it.

It must have something to do with the proximity to sea level. Can anyone provide an example of a world class stadium so close to sea level or the water table?

 

[dibo]

Estadio Riazor, home of Deportivo la Coruna

 

[marinermick]

ole!

half the stadiums in holland would have to be below sea level!

 

[Jesus]

Dont forget when the stadium was built the issues we face for footabll were not even thought about. This pitch would be fine for thugby. When the bears folded, and the mariners came in, it should have been completely overhauled.

 

[serious14]

Surface of the Camp Nou is 80m below sea level, and it's kinda semi close-ish to the sea.  Admittedly it's dug into the ground that way, but still - water table and all that.

AS Monaco's stadium is rather close as well:

 

[dibo]

There are things you can do with a pitch at or even below sea level. If it's on a concrete base (or if below, if it's essentially in a dam) with under-pitch drainage that pumps excess water out and away then you don't have an issue. Groundwater levels are trivial unless the whole thing is inundated.

 

[dibo]

...it's worth mentioning that that stuff is not cheap, and our ground is basically three connected stands built on a patch of grass rather than a purpose built stadium from (below) the ground up.

 

[serious14]

There are things you can do with a pitch at or even below sea level. If it's on a concrete base (or if below, if it's essentially in a dam) with under-pitch drainage that pumps excess water out and away then you don't have an issue. Groundwater levels are trivial unless the whole thing is inundated.

Learn something new every day.  ;D

 

[dibo]

...and to reply to myself again (f**king postwhore) the SFS is sunk into the ground at the northern end, as is the olympic stadium but all the way around. they're built like big concrete wells.

 

[elevated position]

Drainage has been a problem on some occasions (versus sydney V3, , Versus roar V2 preseason) then it was put down to damage from motor type activities .They repaired some of that however I dont think it is a drainage thing more a soil thing where possiblely the ratio mix of dirt to sand is wrong. It reminds me of when they did work on Suncorp a few years ago and a lot of players did their knees.

 

[curious]

Makes it hard to believe when the SFS is completely re-turfed in 28 days doesn't it.

It must have something to do with the proximity to sea level. Can anyone provide an example of a world class stadium so close to sea level or the water table?

Sydney can do it because they have the funds to do it. They can also have it up and running quickly because of the methods used and the type of installation. Large 1.2 wide reinforced gravity turf. Like this..  http://www.kestrelcontractors.co.uk/images/pages/large/turf1.jpg

As long as a pitch has reasonable drainage and light it doesn't matter if it's 100 mtrs above or below sea/ground level. It's all about highly experienced specialist full time staff, enough of them, the best contractors for major renovation and heaps of dollars to pay for it all. Which is a major contributing factor to the high stadium hire fees paid by many of the clubs.  The budget supplied for BT would hardly pay the annual grounds staff wages bill for the major grounds, but with relatively low stadium hire costs and resulting ticket prices, where are the extra dollars to come from?

 

[typool]

The moral of my story is that I spend a lot of time looking out of the window.
[/quote]

haha same, all i see is traffic

 

[scottmac]

Makes it hard to believe when the SFS is completely re-turfed in 28 days doesn't it.

It must have something to do with the proximity to sea level. Can anyone provide an example of a world class stadium so close to sea level or the water table?

Sydney can do it because they have the funds to do it. They can also have it up and running quickly because of the methods used and the type of installation. Large 1.2 wide reinforced gravity turf. Like this..  http://www.kestrelcontractors.co.uk/images/pages/large/turf1.jpg

As long as a pitch has reasonable drainage and light it doesn't matter if it's 100 mtrs above or below sea/ground level. It's all about highly experienced specialist full time staff, enough of them, the best contractors for major renovation and heaps of dollars to pay for it all. Which is a major contributing factor to the high stadium hire fees paid by many of the clubs.  The budget supplied for BT would hardly pay the annual grounds staff wages bill for the major grounds, but with relatively low stadium hire costs and resulting ticket prices, where are the extra dollars to come from?

It was more the timing i was alluding to, not funding in regards to SFS

Full returf, 28 days, world class.

Small patch up, 42 days, worse than when they started.

 

[Forum Phoenix]

Council deserves serious flack over this.
The Mariners are the best agent for community bonding and identity building that we have ever had up here. They and we deserve better.

 

[curious]

Council deserves serious flack over this.
The Mariners are the best agent for community bonding and identity building that we have ever had up here. They and we deserve better.

The council already help fund/sponsor the club to a degree or has that finished?
So what's the alternatives?
Rate payers heavily subsidise the Mariners to allow an increase in the maintenance budget for a stadium that has little income for six months of the year?
The Mariners pay a more realistic price for stadium hire in expectation of a more realistic maintenance budget funded by stadium income as do other stadium management? (That one's difficult to do when most stadiums have income from two or more  full time tenants)
The Mariners buy BT management rights for a large sum and cover the maintenance costs  themselves?

More funding is needed, but in reality, where does it come from?