Artificial Pitches

Artificial Pitches

Does anyone have a rough idea of the cost of installing and maintaining an artificial pitch? Places like Wakefield Park, Kilbirnie Park, Redwood etc would be ideal locations for such a venture. There of course would be problems with the Council with allocation of football only grounds (not a bad idea!) and cricket pitches, not to mention the costs. Watching the U20 World Cup this year and seeing the pitches they used got me thinking about the winter season, plus the ever-rising profile of football in the city...your thoughts?

Would solve ground problems in Wgtn overnight. Could be done for $1m seed capital but that's peanuts compared to what the WCC is spending on the indoor stadium at Cobham (about $50m). Lots of parties could chip in here and there. Could be self funding after a while too.

Costs just over 1,000,000 to lay. I think theres an article around somewhere on the NZ footy site about how much they spent on the one at North Harbour (fifa paid for it).

forget the artificial just play at Waihora Park and have the aftermatch at the mongrel mob pad!

Why not Petone momorial. It is one of, if not the only football only ground in Wellington. Some decent infrastructure already in place as well.

Petone Memorial would be a very ideal location also. I just named those other locations as examples but there are plenty of grounds and clubs in Wellington where an artificial pitch would be a worthwhile investment.

Can't see WCC paying for anything outside it's area and they are crucial to the initial funding of it. To then run it on a self funding basis also needs as many users as possible all day, 7 days a week, like the hockey Stadium and although I don't know the split of actual player numbers between Wellington and the Valley i would imagine there would more users in Wellington.

Artificial grounds are a good solution to weather problems and the resultant crap grounds.  Plus, if there was enough money (wishful thinking) why couldn't a small number of such grounds actually serve to host most of the local football day and night. Evening games during the week are an option, and there's no reason why all grades couldn't have the option available. 

the Porirua City Council have just put in an Astroturf Hockey Field in at Mana College (the big f*k off bit of grass out the front of it - elsdon park i think its called) and as soon as it was finished, hockey was on there every nite.......but now that hockey is over.......well lets just say them pretty floodlights don't come on much anymore.

Lower Hutt uses the hockey turf at Fraser Park for training.

The artificial surface I am talking about is not astroturf used for hockey. It is a 3rd generation development of artificial playing surface used at the FIFA Under 20 World Cup in Canada this year and at North Harbour Stadium. You'll see England and Russia playing on a similar surface in the upcoming Euro 2008 qualifiers.

Modern turf is a lot differnet to the old stuff. It is more grass like but does have a slightly different bounce to it. I played on one in the UK about 3 years ago and it was awesome. Less friction that old turf so you dont get the burns. Even as a keeper I found it great to play on.

I've seen the same stuff in Greece. It's really very realistic, not like the old days when astroturf first came out. It's actually very good for football. Plus, think of it, no more craters and potholes, mud and slush etc etc etc. You can actually play football on it. Plus it would be even, not like Mt Everest from sideline to centre circle.

Guys if you want to see examples of astro turf go to your nearest rugby club, nearly all the good clubs in Wgtn have indoor astro grass areas for training, I have trained on or seen most and the best example is out at  Petone Rugby Club, looks just like real grass, no burns and you can wear your normal footy boots, I am sure you can get different grass for differnt sports check out http://www.tigerturf.co.nz/ four or five of these pitches around Wellington and out the Hutt would be brilliant especially sport specific floodlit grounds. Whats $5m to local councils or Mr Serepisos.

Wellington College are considering one

Would be a better investment than a bloody rugby pavilion.

Agreed. Im pushing for a join pavilion for both codes and central to both fields but its unlikely. Even though there are at least 100 more Football players than rugby players

You've got the wrong headmaster, wrong headmaaaster...

LHAFC have just installed one at Fraser Park in the Gym.

The initial costs would be offset by the savings in ground maintenance week to week, especially if Wellington football was centralised to 2-3 grounds with artificial turf, quality floodlights, fencing, and perhaps even tender out an on-site cafe/bar that would do quite well I'd say.

Uhm i played on one of these(fullsize) in germany a few years ago at Kaiserslautern academy ground its very 'weird' but you can slide because the newer ones are non-abrasive and have some form of blackish rubber at the base of the grass(does not burn) to give it a naturalish bounce. All round good but just looses that natural feel. At the the local rugby club to me(College Rifles-rich lol) There ground has hills all around and they have done extensive sanding and drainage, but there training area was crap. So they instaled a small area 30x15ish so for training its rather good, still up in the air about the full feild.

Petone Memorial would probably be the best location for a artifical pitch if they were keen of having one, due to Capital Soccer based there and home of Team Wellington training I think. Also Petone has already got nice facilities and something like that could increase the profile for more football there.

who cares a pitch is a pitch

Team Wellington not training at Memorial, so to put an artificial pitch any where that a top team (Phoenix or TW) is not likely to play at is a waste. It should go to a park with a stand of some capacity.

Now Capital Football have not got a director of coaching who works with TW the push for the pitch at Memorial may die.

our college has an artificial we play 6 a side on it on wensdae nites

HK_Keeper2007-12-28 20:25:27

I can see lots of benefits in doing it. But it would have to be done properly. I think just about every country has some artificial pitches nowadays. Certainly a lot of football academies do. The quality has definitely improved from the grassburn, bounce 20 metres in the air astroturf of the old days. There's no reason why the skiill level wouldn't improve due to playing on consistently quality grounds week to week.