Industry “
What is required is a rethink to the strategy that seems to be emerging, not just by the FA and Sport England, but by local and central Government
the natural pitches would look and play if it had £7.5m to spend on the renovation and maintenance of their existing natural turf pitches. Even with 15 artificial pitches installed, the
amount of weekend games would still be less than half (300) of the games potentially playable on the 93 natural surfaces that are already in existence. Using current jargon, this is a “no brainer”!
More footballers (enthusiasts without talent, as well as those who might just rise to the top of the pile) will get to play more football, on much better natural grass pitches, which will enable them to improve their skills - and all for less money than Mr Dyke is offering to spend. For a greater understanding of the
maintenance costs of both natural and artificial costs, I will elaborate further using the pitches I surveyed as the example (see table 2): The average cost of maintaining a single
Step 2-4 football pitch (private non-league club) per annum, to include part time staff, machinery, fertiliser, seed and chemical, as well as a suitable end of season renovation for the whole surface, would be in the region of £20-£30,000. This would ensure six hours of football and training per week. Economies
Every professional player that I’ve worked and spoken with for the last twenty-five years has been against artificial surfaces
” 66 I PC DECEMBER/JANUARY 2015
of scale to manage 93 pitches within one local authority parks department should bring this cost down to around £8,000 per pitch to attain a similar quality standard for each one. As can be seen from the table, this would
still allow nearly £2,400 per pitch for some end of season seeding and topdressing, and the total annual maintenance cost for the council would not extend beyond £744,000. Of course, the money required to provide decent quality grass surfaces would only need to be part funded by Greg Dyke’s FA and other sponsors; there would be pitch hire income to offset some of the costs. In fact, based on 93 pitches, the surplus money would be £223,000 per annum, allowing a rolling progamme of drainage improvements to one or two parks where primary pipe drainage and secondary drainage of sand slits would be installed, bringing all the venues up to scratch over a 10-15 year period. In contrast, the annual maintenance cost of an artificial surface is significantly higher at £9,720. An additional consideration is the hire
charge of a full size artificial pitch which is, on average, £100 per game, rising to £150 under floodlights. A cost that is prohibitive to most clubs and players anyway. If these 600
TABLE 2 Maintenance costs based
new facilities were to be built, the cost per game would need to be reduced to make it affordable for the average player. Clubs have enough problems getting £5 subs from players now, which barely covers the £50 fee for the pitch, before we add in the referee, kit, balls and transport costs. What is required is a rethink of the
strategy that seems to be emerging, not just by the FA and Sport England but by local and central Government. What is preventing Greg Dyke’s FA and the Government working together to ring fence funding for parks? Local authorities already have an
obligation to maintain open space. With the funding that Greg Dyke is asking for to install artificial pitches, surely it is common sense to invest a fraction of that money into existing venues and improve what we have already? The capital cost of installing an artificial
pitch isn’t where the cost stops either. Artificial pitches aren’t maintenance free and require regular brushing, litter picking and disinfecting. In addition, the surface will need to be replaced every 5 to 10 years after the initial installation. The cost for carpet replacement would be around £200,000; adding considerably to the actual annual maintenance costs.
Natural Pitch
on economies of scale Mowing (32 cuts per annum) £2,000
Aeration deep decompaction £645 x 3 operations Slitting-shallow aeration x 10 £1075 Fertiliser x 3 applications Annual weed kill Moss Kill
£806 £100 Nil
Harrowing/brushing Disinfecting
Mini decompaction Total annual cost per pitch
Artificial Pitch Nil
£1500 x 1 operation Nil Nil
£100 £100
£1,000-once weekly operation £6,300-daily operation Nil Nil
£720 £5,626
£1000 £9,720
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