State of Oakwell pitch..

Total embarrassment when you see other grounds like Preston, Watford etc on Quest looking superb. What’s gone wrong with it?

 

It's an old pitch that has been very wet over the winter.

 

I believe it was to be relaid close season just gone, but it wouldn’t have been ready for kick off. That and the weather.

 

Think it came to our aid on two occasions last night!

 

Looked better yesterday than it has for months. Two weeks to work on it in decent weather will have helped.

 

We keep relaying the same pitch, same seed, we need a new desso one. The state of the ground is embarrassing watching it yesterday, broken seats at the corner of the East and North stands, the horrible sand around the perimeter, the stands not been painted for months, discoloured seating, white seats used from the academy to replace broken seats. There's a lot of work to do on it before fans are allowed in.

 

Really?

 

Maybe Val likes it as it is? We don’t lose many on it

 

I thought that to be honest. It looks better from a distance shot, just when you get a close up you can see it's not the best.

 

I think it’s the drainage. You can lay whatever type of grass you want, but if the water doesn’t run away, you’ve had it.
We did have sublime drainage when the pitch was laid on the original ash and shale which was left behind by former industrial use of the land.
At some point, that material must have been removed.

 

Depends on who is expected to pay for its replacement.
As we have mooted about before.

 

fratton Park looked perfect on The EFL highlights. It needs a bit more money spent on it. Do we have any of those sunlamps?

If it is in that state when we are in the Premier League next season, the FA will issue a points deduction a la Cricket County Championship.

 

It's not too bad, to say we bought it second hand from Swansea recently.

 

Looked like they were playing on the Somme a couple of months ago. It has improved.

 

Council and cryne have to pay for it were on a hill be knoown for good drainage ever since i remember alwayz play better on a good pitch 2 pts frm last 3 games is promotion form.

 

Cost millions

 

A million if that, Wembley was 250k 12 years ago, Huddersfield the same the season after.

 

As stated in many previous threads on this same topic, we went from one season pretty much straight into another. There was very little time/chance to renovate. We've lived through a pandemic for the last 12 months which has affected all football clubs in various ways. And we've had some pretty terrible weather to contend with at times. We did a big interview in Grove Street with our Head Groundsman a while back who explained things much better than I ever will.

Of course, most clubs with hybrid pitches have fared better, as do the odd lower league pitches because their seasons were ended early in 19/20, so they had months to work on them.

I'm pretty sure any playing surface issues will be addressed in the summer.

 

I can remember in the 80s we had the best drainage of any pitch, for the reason you mentioned

 

It was the building of the new stands. Water used to flow away, the stands now keep it in. They also block out a lot of the sunshine so the grass can't repair itself. Oakwell used to be wide open, it's now enclosed and the pitch has suffered.