Winter Sports - Football
I’m quite comfortable with a microphone being thrust under my nose. The experiences made my Best Man’s speech at a friend’s recent wedding an absolute breeze!
The newly renovated training pitches - still available for community use - for the timebeing!
Spurs has invited me to see their new training ground as well. I’m already being made to feel part of the inner sanctum, which is great.” As an Arsenal fan, James will have to wait
until March for his team to visit the Goldsands (unless a cup tie brings that date forward), but is already making plans to attend the away fixture. He is clearly keen to benefit from his new role. With just five weeks before the start of the
season, activity around the ground is continuing apace. A new players pavilion is still at ground level; “although you wouldn’t believe the technology already in place underground. It will be completed in time for the Villa game,” states James confidently. “You should have been here a few weeks
ago, when the place was heaving with contractors - pitch renovations, new buildings, groundwork, permanent camera positions being put in, extended media facilities in the West stand, along with a larger camera platform in the East stand. We don’t know, as yet, when our first live match will be televised, but I’m expecting it may well be the Villa game to see how the ‘new boys’ cope.” Hard wiring for TV cameras and cabling for
LED advertising boards were being installed at the time of my visit, whilst the goal-line technology is also to be completed. “When we were in the lower divisions, if
we had a live TV game, Sky would be here four days before the game to set out the cabling and camera positions. Now, they’ll be able to just turn up and plug in,” explains James.
A Rainbird irrigation system, with sixteen
perimeter and eight in-pitch heads, is also in place, which can be controlled remotely from either a computer or mobile phone. The two training pitches, originally
constructed by John Pierson, also have irrigation - fourteen perimeter and eight in- pitch for both which, again, can be controlled remotely.
The Goldsands’ 11,700 capacity will be the
smallest in the Premier League, with just 1700 seats allocated for away supporters. “Eddie doesn’t like to have away supporters behind the goals, so they will be
88 I PC AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2015
cabling being installed in front of the Ted MacDougall South stand
Hard wiring for TV cameras and LED
accommodated in the East stand above my machinery facilities.” Dean Court and its
surroundings occupy a sizeable portion of King’s Park, a council
One of the two mini 3G pitches at the training ground behind the stadium
who has provided him with a daughter, Charlotte, now nineteen months old, to occupy his spare time! Before I depart, I ask a couple of final
questions. Can they survive? “The Premier League is two divisions in one. Those seven or eight clubs vying for European football and other honours, and the remainder who simply seek survival. At the end of the season, all we have to be is better than three other clubs. So, to answer your question, yes, I believe we can.” With season ticket sales capped at 6,000;
run open space that provides numerous cricket and football pitches, the athletics stadium, an indoor bowls centre and a bowling green. Everything that the club want to do, therefore, needs council approval. “Fortunately,” says James with a smile, “the majority of councillors are Bournemouth fans! But we have to remember that this is a community area, so even our training pitches and 3G areas are currently available to them.” “Ideally, we aim to get exclusive use. We
would like to build a two metre high screen around the training pitches to offer a degree of security and privacy so that corners and set play drills etc. aren’t spied on!” Academy training takes place at nearby
Canford Arena, which provides seven natural turf pitches, plus a full size 3G pitch should weather conditions ever pose a problem. This is green belt land and, therefore, no building is currently allowed. The club are hoping that this situation may be reconsidered so that Bournemouth can create their own dedicated training facility here.
If all the above wasn’t enough, James has, in the interim period, got married to Amy,
Cherry Bear
“we could easily have sold twice that amount,” says James, the Goldsands will be buzzing for every home game. And what about the increased media
attention? “I’ve already had a taste of that in the Championship and I’m quite comfortable with a microphone being thrust under my nose. The experiences made my Best Man’s speech at a friend’s recent wedding an absolute breeze!” If the desire and ambition off the pitch can
be replicated on it, who knows what the future might hold for ‘little old Bournemouth’. Life at least appears to be pretty damn good for James Lathwell at the moment.
”
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