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STOP PITCHIN' - Sheffield Wednesday FC pitch issues.


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Guest mrbluesky

Historically, the pitch has always suffered as you've pointed out, and it will continue to do so, I can't say I've directly had a go at the ground staff, I have pointed out that It's possibly a young inexperienced person that is in charge of looking after the pitch (if the strong rumours are to be believed), the one thing you don't cost cut on a football pitch is maintenance and recruitment, we've lost some good people that looked after it for many years, granted people move on I get that, but questions need to be answered.

 

Excuse the pun, but it appears to be the perfect storm, the pitch has been used way too much, maintenance looks to be an issue in regard to funding, and do we have the right experience of staff, what with it being a difficult pitch to maintain even at the best of times. 

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12 hours ago, sherlyegg said:

I think the steel panels in place are part of the structural integrity of the roof.

To replace with plastic would not be practical.

 

solar panels are not an investment...particularly in winter.

 

I disagree regarding solar panels. Energy can be bought at night from the grid during the cheaper rate, and sold back the next morning at a higher rate. You can do that all year round. Also it's a myth solar panels don't work in the winter. Granted the days are shorter, but even on a day like today the cells would be reacting to the photons in the light and producing energy, especially in the more modern panels. It would take many years for the investment to pay off, probaby something like 7 - 10 years, but we need to be forward planning. To be honest, I'm surprised football clubs haven't started doing this already. Maybe it's down to the extra weight of the panels.

 

I'm not a structural engineer (funnily enough my nextdoor neighbour is, but he deals with soil) so you could have a valid point regarding the current roofing. I was thinking of what they did at Arsenal, but of course that stadium was developed to allow natural light to come in, and so I am sure there was structural compensation somewhere to allow for these panels.

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2 hours ago, Daizan10 said:

It would be interesting to see if Goodison Park has similar issues to this, being a ground of the same kind of size, built in the same era. But then, they didn't decide to build it next to a bloody river. 

nowt to do with it ,  new ground is actually been built on water /next to water  . loads of grounds next to rivers fulham right next to thames , city ground next to trent etc . river has no effect unless we have a massive flood like 2007 and it gets into the ground , this nearly happened 1-2 years ago i remember too . been shaded by stands dont help thats prob why south stand side is worse than north south  side which gets more sun/light.. its to do with poor investment and the staff you employ , we have had big stands for well over 60 years and now and 7 years ago the pitch was in a state.  the flood did damage many years ago but this was rectified by new drainage and pitch at some cost, whats the excuse now? 

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3 hours ago, legendaryswan said:

Its not a great advert for the company thats laid is it? 

Pitches in Norway/Sweden and Russia are subject to far harsher conditions in winter than the UK and yet still produce a better playing surface than we have


poor mate, it really is. 
 

however you’d have to think there is an event of neglect from the clubs side of things…pitch maintenance etc… is a specialist job in its own right. 

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9 minutes ago, Wednesday_Jack said:


poor mate, it really is. 
 

however you’d have to think there is an event of neglect from the clubs side of things…pitch maintenance etc… is a specialist job in its own right. 

 

Unfortunately its typical of the club under DC. He tells us he's got plenty of money to spend but he couldn't pay players when there was no gate money, he hasn't paid fans season ticket refunds and he hasn't done anything to the ground apart from a scoreboard and new pitch when he arrived. 

 

His general neglect has resulted in the new pitch now needing major renovation, the undersoil heating boiler was so ancient that when it failed it was beyond repair, the floodlights are over 25 years old and only just meet EFL requirements, we can no longer obtain parts for them and almost a 3rd of them aren't working so the whole system now needs replacing.

 

These items are all outside FFP/P&S calculations and there's no reason why an owner with plenty of money to spend wouldn't address these issues before they became critical.

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Guest Musttryharder
3 hours ago, Wednesday_Jack said:


poor mate, it really is. 
 

however you’d have to think there is an event of neglect from the clubs side of things…pitch maintenance etc… is a specialist job in its own right. 

Theres no thought about it. Last Head groundsman Tim left because they club wouldnt provide extra and improved specialist equipment for the groundsmen to use on the pitch. They haven't the tools to maintain a high maintenance playing surface hence the serious derioriation. Your dead right, it is a specilaist job and requires specialist equipment to maintain and look after. ******** pot poor from an owner who seriously hasnt a clue how to run a football club. By the way, the club lost a long serving committed member of the workforce due to shortsightedness and stubborness. Where have we heard that before. 

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4 hours ago, ChapSmurf said:

 

I disagree regarding solar panels. Energy can be bought at night from the grid during the cheaper rate, and sold back the next morning at a higher rate. You can do that all year round. Also it's a myth solar panels don't work in the winter. Granted the days are shorter, but even on a day like today the cells would be reacting to the photons in the light and producing energy, especially in the more modern panels. It would take many years for the investment to pay off, probaby something like 7 - 10 years, but we need to be forward planning. To be honest, I'm surprised football clubs haven't started doing this already. Maybe it's down to the extra weight of the panels.

 

I'm not a structural engineer (funnily enough my nextdoor neighbour is, but he deals with soil) so you could have a valid point regarding the current roofing. I was thinking of what they did at Arsenal, but of course that stadium was developed to allow natural light to come in, and so I am sure there was structural compensation somewhere to allow for these panels.

 

Cost to install on a typical semi-detached is £6k to £7k depending which panels chosen.

 

For the above you will average 1kwh to 2kwh per day throughout the year depending on an optimal south facing roof….and a good summer.

 

Take the higher value 2kwh per day- Tariff charges are on average 18p per kwh. So, your payback is 36p per day x 365 days …£131 per year.

 

Take the lower figure of £6k to install; you are looking at 45 years just to get your money back and that does not include any maintenance costs.

 

The only people making money are the ones with lucrative subsidies.

 

When you hear of people saying “my electric bills are next to nothing” on programmes such as Grand Designs, they always fail to mention their bills are subsidised by you and me, we are paying for their ‘next to nothing bills.

 

BTW. I am an electrical engineer and have a house with solar panels on a south facing roof.

 

We inherited them when we bought the house. The old lady that owned the house had them installed free about 6yrs ago, tied in on a 25yr lease. She was of course suckered in with the promise of a share of ‘free electricity. They make about 15p a day averaged over the year.

 

The company that installed them are making much more, not because they generate more power but because they have/had government grants and a lucrative sell back rate.

 

No company in the world would offer free solar panels and their return would be 15p per day.

 

Their engineers call about once a year to ‘maintain the inverters’ etc.

 

I can’t get out of the contract (or I would) because the lease is carried forward if the house is sold on.

 

When we bought the house, this was all made clear by our solicitor.

 

We wanted the house so bought regardless.

 

That is the reason there are no solar panels on the south stand roof and also why they are not on public buildings…except a few, usually green councils and just for a box ticking exercise.

 

Green issues are different discussion. I am merely pointing out you cannot save money with solar panels.

 

And BTW they do not work when its dark…like most of the winter -;

 

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6 hours ago, Tewkesbury said:

The 18 yard boxes on the banana pitch on Longley park never get flooded, and it's only a 2 minute drive away.

 

We should play there till it's sorted.

Yeah but you could lurk underwater to beat the offside trap before rising like a salmon to score the winner lol

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Prior to 1963 the pitch was well drained due to a base of in the main ash and cinders. The river was never a problem and served a purpose of carrying away excess water. 

 

1963 was a very harsh winter and the permafrost was several feet deep. All methods were tried to get the pitch playable and the season ran beyond min May. Indeed we beat the Blades 3-1 on my birthday May 15th.

During the freeze a combination of lighting fires, digging and hoeing, Straw, Sand were tried we even had a tractor driving around the pitch at one point to try and loosen the top soil.

 

The Ash and Shale base provided a perfect base for the drainage of the water.However, the permafrost in thaw became all too clogged up by soil and other fragments. Possibly replacing top soil with a new Desso base may have added to the problem as an unintended consequence.

 

I haven't seen or spoken to our former award winning Groundsman Dave Barber for well over twenty years. But I would love to hear is take on this ?        

  

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2 hours ago, sherlyegg said:

 

Cost to install on a typical semi-detached is £6k to £7k depending which panels chosen.

 

For the above you will average 1kwh to 2kwh per day throughout the year depending on an optimal south facing roof….and a good summer.

 

Take the higher value 2kwh per day- Tariff charges are on average 18p per kwh. So, your payback is 36p per day x 365 days …£131 per year.

 

Take the lower figure of £6k to install; you are looking at 45 years just to get your money back and that does not include any maintenance costs.

 

The only people making money are the ones with lucrative subsidies.

 

When you hear of people saying “my electric bills are next to nothing” on programmes such as Grand Designs, they always fail to mention their bills are subsidised by you and me, we are paying for their ‘next to nothing bills.

 

BTW. I am an electrical engineer and have a house with solar panels on a south facing roof.

 

We inherited them when we bought the house. The old lady that owned the house had them installed free about 6yrs ago, tied in on a 25yr lease. She was of course suckered in with the promise of a share of ‘free electricity. They make about 15p a day averaged over the year.

 

The company that installed them are making much more, not because they generate more power but because they have/had government grants and a lucrative sell back rate.

 

No company in the world would offer free solar panels and their return would be 15p per day.

 

Their engineers call about once a year to ‘maintain the inverters’ etc.

 

I can’t get out of the contract (or I would) because the lease is carried forward if the house is sold on.

 

When we bought the house, this was all made clear by our solicitor.

 

We wanted the house so bought regardless.

 

That is the reason there are no solar panels on the south stand roof and also why they are not on public buildings…except a few, usually green councils and just for a box ticking exercise.

 

Green issues are different discussion. I am merely pointing out you cannot save money with solar panels.

 

And BTW they do not work when its dark…like most of the winter -;

 

 

I couldn't have picked a worse person to start a debate with over solar panels. I will concede whilst I'm only this far behind. lol

Thanks for the info. As I am sure you can tell, I know very little apart from roughly how this all works. Funnily enough my mum/step-dad are considering getting them done on their south facing roof. £12K total cost. It's something they have looked in to, not some salesman bashing on their door flogging them something they don't want or need. I will ask them about the maintenance costs and ask what the cost is, and over what term.

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3 hours ago, Musttryharder said:

Theres no thought about it. Last Head groundsman Tim left because they club wouldnt provide extra and improved specialist equipment for the groundsmen to use on the pitch. They haven't the tools to maintain a high maintenance playing surface hence the serious derioriation. Your dead right, it is a specilaist job and requires specialist equipment to maintain and look after. ******** pot poor from an owner who seriously hasnt a clue how to run a football club. By the way, the club lost a long serving committed member of the workforce due to shortsightedness and stubborness. Where have we heard that before. 


yep I also know this for a fact. I didn’t know tim personally but I have friends who knew him really well. it’s not just a simple case of uncle tim and a lawn mower kinda job is it???

 

 

 

 

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