Rugby/football stadium issues

[Thingimubob]

Chelsea must expect to get more than 40k at their games, otherwise why would they be redeveloping and extending Stamford Bridge?

 

[TheSaffycen]

Does anyone know where Chelsea will play during the AI and 6 nations ? That's a couple of months of their season when they have no home games ? I'm thinking they should try to use wembley as it fits into the football season better.

 

[ratsapprentice]

Wembley is actually closer to Stamford Bridge than Twickenham is.

 

[SuperEagle]

I'm a bit undecided. No issues with the stadium seeing multipurpose use.

But does no one have concerns about the quality of the pitch?

Football turf needs to be cut shorter than a rugby pitch which will impact on the ability of players to change direction, scrimmage etc.... etc.... That pitch needs to be in excellent quality for Rugby first and foremost this went be the case of a football team sets up there.

The KC Stadium in Hull is dual purpose football/RL and the pitch there is fine. The pitch issue can be solved.

Does anyone know where Chelsea will play during the AI and 6 nations ? That's a couple of months of their season when they have no home games ? I'm thinking they should try to use wembley as it fits into the football season better.

Couldn't they arrange to play all their away games in this time? Or play their "home" games in the opposition's stadium? I think Spurs are planning to have a whole "away season" whilst White Hart Lane is rebuilt, so it seems the the Football PL can be flexible regarding the fixture list

The disruption might not be as much as people think. As others have mentioned, Chelsea may not sell 82000 for every game and, from what I've seen, PL fans get in and out much more quickly than rugby fans who tend to turn international events into an all day drinkathon.

 

[welshglory]

Isn't the Chelsea support heartland West/south west london anyway? It's certainly not inner city london, well the people who actually attend games. It will actually make it easier for most of their supporters won't it.?

 

[ratsapprentice]

Nah - South London doesn't really get serviced by the underground - it's harder to get to because you have to use national rail rather than TFL services to get to Twickenham. Even when you get there the nearest station is quite a long walk from the stadium.

Wembley would be easier to get to.

TBH I can't quite see why Wembley wouldn't be used other than because it's an NW postcode. Surely the FA have some obligations to help here?
Would've thought it would have a much more open calendar too?

 

[goodNumber10]

The KC Stadium in Hull is dual purpose football/RL and the pitch there is fine. The pitch issue can be solved.

League pitches have very different demands on it to Union, especially international Rugby Union post world cup year when we'll be looking to build on the success and interest of the world cup (as an event).

Couldn't they arrange to play all their away games in this time? Or play their "home" games in the opposition's stadium? I think Spurs are planning to have a whole "away season" whilst White Hart Lane is rebuilt, so it seems the the Football PL can be flexible regarding the fixture list

The disruption might not be as much as people think. As others have mentioned, Chelsea may not sell 82000 for every game and, from what I've seen, PL fans get in and out much more quickly than rugby fans who tend to turn international events into an all day drinkathon.

that's a good idea.

 

[welshglory]

The Sprays and Swansea city share Liberty stadium and it has the same pitch as Twickers, it's regarded as one of the best around

 

[goodNumber10]

The Sprays and Swansea city share Liberty stadium and it has the same pitch as Twickers, it's regarded as one of the best around

never knew Twickers was a hybrid pitch, you live and learn.

 

[ratsapprentice]

Been that way for a good few years now - Twickenham may look like a brutalist prison and the stands might be too far from the pitch, but it's facilities are top notch.

It's been fitted with LED floodlights too - should look a lot better on tv now!

 

[welshglory]

Seems to be quite popular these days, Twickers has one of the best pitches full stop i think the design of the stadium and shutter roofs helps a lot.

The WRU are going to install it at the M STAD as well, but i don't think it's going to make much of a difference. Should have gone for full artificial, the WRU wants football events however. The design of the stadium and pitch irrigation is the main problem though, any real grass will always be a disaster there.

 

[RedruthRFC]

Seems to be quite popular these days, Twickers has one of the best pitches full stop i think the design of the stadium and shutter roofs helps a lot.

The WRU are going to install it at the M STAD as well, but i don't think it's going to make much of a difference. Should have gone for full artificial, the WRU wants football events however. The design of the stadium and pitch irrigation is the main problem though, any real grass will always be a disaster there.

I did the tour of the Millennium a month or so, the installation of the new Desso surface was in progress then (well there was evidence of it, but the contractors appeared to be taking a POETS day). I share your concerns, Desso pitches are still 95% plus grass and according to the tour guide, there are areas of the pitch where grass doesn't grow at all! I was tempted to ask why they don't use hydroponics to get over this problem, but I didn't want to be "that guy"!

 

[RedruthRFC]

League pitches have very different demands on it to Union, especially international Rugby Union post world cup year when we'll be looking to build on the success and interest of the world cup (as an event).

Indeed. The season before last, Leeds Carnegie (as they were then) played a few fixtures early in the season at other venues around Yorkshire as the surface at Headingly was having a new playing surface put in place. Less than 20 minutes and an awful lot of collapsed scrums into the match, the referee ruled that the pitch was unsafe to scrummage on and (inexplicably) called for uncontested scrums!

Saying that, a few more "away" home matches later the problems were resolved. Unlike other unions, the RFU seem to take the quality of the playing surface seriously, I recall hearing that they head hunted Sunderland FC's award winning groundsman. I don't know if he's still there, but I'd be pretty confident that Twickenham has expertise as good as anywhere to make it work.

 

[ratsapprentice]

You always see people talk about how great the artificial surfaces are, but from what I've seen Desso pitches are a cut above everything else.
You get the softness of grass, but with the consistency and durability of artificial.

 

[welshglory]

True but if your pitch/turf is crap anyway, no matter what you do to try and improve it, it ain't gonna make much of a difference.
Imo it makes good pitches great

 

[ratsapprentice]

What do you mean?

They completely replace the old turf/re-sand etc. when they install a desso pitch.
They don't just add a bit of synthetic material to the current one.

 

[psychic duck]

A couple years ago there was a big issue with pitches. In 2012 or 2013 it was joke, there was a period when Millennium Stadium, Stade de France, Murrayfield and Aviva Stadium all had terrible pitches cutting up and collapsing scrums which was most of the 6 Nations. Good to see it has been addressed with more and more teams adding more hi tec pitches, the new Murrayfield pitch looked great when Edinburgh played there.

 

[goodNumber10]

A couple years ago there was a big issue with pitches. In 2012 or 2013 it was joke, there was a period when Millennium Stadium, Stade de France, Murrayfield and Aviva Stadium all had terrible pitches cutting up and collapsing scrums which was most of the 6 Nations. Good to see it has been addressed with more and more teams adding more hi tec pitches, the new Murrayfield pitch looked great when Edinburgh played there.

To be fair there was couple of problems with the Murray field pitch.

Last season was the infestation of parasites issue, but before that the issue was that the turf doesn't get enough sunlight and as a result doesn't root properly. It was always a great pitch (80's/90's) until the stadium got built up and got regular use.

 

[RedruthRFC]

What do you mean?

They completely replace the old turf/re-sand etc. when they install a desso pitch.
They don't just add a bit of synthetic material to the current one.

True, but as I said above, Desso is 95% grass, so unless the problem of grass not growing in certain areas of the stadium has been resolved, the plan seems fraught with danger.

 

[ratsapprentice]

I'm sure that part of getting the new pitch included someone saying "use hydroponics you ****ing mugs" - it's not in Desso's interests to install a pitch and for it to subsequently be crap.