Mother Nature decimated the winter sports programme over the festive period and into January. What were the implications?
A touch of frost! W
ith close to one hundred football fixtures postponed between Christmas and mid
January, clubs were counting the cost in lost revenue. Similarly, race meetings were cancelled and the rugby fixture list decimated with equally damaging financial repercussions. It is reckoned that close to £10 million was lost in football alone. For many clubs, losing a prime time
fixture over the weekend or, as also happened, on Boxing Day, is money that can rarely be recouped, as the rearranged matches are played midweek with the resultant lower attendances. For many that will be a 50% drop in revenue. Wigan’s postponed home Saturday fixture against Aston Villa is estimated to have lost the club £200,000 in lower gate receipts and lost hospitality packages. In the lower divisions, where many of the clubs are surviving hand to mouth,
Who, what and where are you?
Adrian Partridge, Head Groundsman, Sunderland FC
the postponements will have caused huge cash flow problems. For non- league clubs they might even prove terminal! For example, Rotherham United who, because of a run of away games, had not played a home game since 5th December when the bad weather arrived, meant they went six weeks without playing a home fixture. Sure, it was unfortunate timing, bad luck, call it what you will, but losing gate receipts of over £60,000 could have been damaging. Rotherham’s Chairman, Tony Stewart, said “It’s not easy, but we put the cash into the club last season to prepare for the worst situation. There is a prudence in managing that money for the full season, making sure you have the discipline to manage the cash flow. We are probably not as badly affected as some clubs.”
Stewart believes his club’s away
What have been the key problems caused by the recent weather conditions?
The main problem that we encountered is the stadium surroundings, because of the snow and ice we have had to grit very regularly to stop the public from injuring themselves.
games at Chesterfield and Rochdale over the festive period were postponed “a little readily”, with very little thought for the implications. “In those two cases, the managers of both sides commented that the referee just turned up and said, ‘No, I’m not taking any chances’.”
“It may be that common sense isn’t
prevailing on some occasions. It’s not to the benefit of the fans or the clubs who are having to lose revenue from that game. I do believe things could probably have been more relaxed than they were.” Whilst groundsmen at every level will have struggled with the weather, the Premiership boys did benefit from undersoil heating and expensive covers, even though conditions outside the stadiums put paid to their efforts. In the lower leagues, where these luxuries were simply not available to them, the struggle was even more
What actions or precautions have you taken to keep the facilities operational?
The under soil heating on the pitch has done a great job, so the pitch hasn’t been that much of a problem, but we have had to put the frost sheets on a few times, which has made the pitch struggle to get rid of the excess water.
Any specific problems that were insurmountable?
We had the game against Bolton called off because the surrounding areas were deemed too dangerous to ensure the safety of the public.
Lee Jackson, Head Groundsman, City of Manchester Staium
Ed Mowe, Head Groundsman, Leicester City FC
Over usage on our undersoil heating with the first team needing to train on the stadium pitch constantly. Also, the reserves have been using it frequently. The snow around the complex was about eight inches deep.
Our main problem has been the severity of the frosts, which have frozen the ground underneath our frost sheets at the training ground. The prolonged minus temperatures has stopped the ground from thawing out. This has resulted in lost outdoor training sessions and the first team training on the stadium pitch before a match.
Dean Gilasbey, Head Groundsman, Llanelli Scarlets RUFC
Leaf frost within the stadium environment. The cold snap has seriously shrunk our roots - and excessive training has killed our plant. (See! Training on your pitch doesn’t help).
On Monday there was an inch of snow, so the undersoil heating was turned on full. We cleared an area with snow shovels for the first team to do a short training session. Come Tuesday the snow had cleared from the heated pitch. Around the complex we used snow shovels to clear paths, and the tractor and loading bucket to clear the car park and roads.
At both the training ground and Walkers stadium keeping areas clear with rock salt was a must so that players, staff and customers could all move around safely. The undersoil heating has been on nearly constantly for the last month at the Walkers stadium, because of the games we have had and the work we need to do repairing and preparing the pitch.
Prior to the heavy frost we applied liquid aeration, a liquid feed and amino acids to try and get the root hairs going. We’ve also used this cold snap to try and catch up on some annual leave. As the king of construction would say, there are elements in snow! So, we let nature take its course.
The only thing was people and players not being able to get to the training ground for work, our heated pitch was playable at all times.
Again, it is the frozen ground underneath the sheets and not being able to train.
One thing I will not do is damage the pitch for presentation. So, due to the inclement weather, we haven’t presented the pitch for the club games, although we have for regional games.
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