The American Express Community Stadium pitch is undergoing renovation work ahead of the new SkyBet Championship season.
Head of Grounds Maintenance, Steve Winterburn, is overseeing the work, which has so far included work to fit the goalposts for next year’s Rugby World Cup.He told seagulls.co.uk, “We have been carrying out our annual renovation maintenance on the pitch, similar to what we have done for the last two years, removing a certain amount of the surface layer to create a clean bed for new grass plant growth for next season.
“We have to co-ordinate this around other maintenance tasks in the stadium during the summer, as we have various other people working around the site.
“Tying it in with the Rod Stewart concert next week is another challenge and getting the timing right is quite important as the pitch will be covered.
“The contractors have been working over this weekend, so the process actually goes on for six days work before it is completed, but we’re on target.”Winterburn also described the challenges of fitting in the sockets for next year’s Rugby Union World Cup.
The Brighton Community Stadium, as it will be known as for the duration of the tournament, will host South Africa versus Japan and Samoa versus USA on the 19th and 20th September next year and the head of grounds maintenance believes it is an exciting opportunity for the club.
“The sockets will be set several inches below the pitch, so they’ll be sitting there and left alone until next year when we uncover them.
“We know exactly where they are of course, so we only have to excavate a small hole to find them and then link up with the posts that go in inside to set up the frame.
“It does alter our preparations slightly at the start of the 2015/16 season, but it’s great for the club to have two games played here.
“It will work quite well as long as we get the fixtures for the football to work around the Rugby World Cup, which should happen.”
Original article
Head of Grounds Maintenance, Steve Winterburn, is overseeing the work, which has so far included work to fit the goalposts for next year’s Rugby World Cup.He told seagulls.co.uk, “We have been carrying out our annual renovation maintenance on the pitch, similar to what we have done for the last two years, removing a certain amount of the surface layer to create a clean bed for new grass plant growth for next season.
“We have to co-ordinate this around other maintenance tasks in the stadium during the summer, as we have various other people working around the site.
“Tying it in with the Rod Stewart concert next week is another challenge and getting the timing right is quite important as the pitch will be covered.
“The contractors have been working over this weekend, so the process actually goes on for six days work before it is completed, but we’re on target.”Winterburn also described the challenges of fitting in the sockets for next year’s Rugby Union World Cup.
The Brighton Community Stadium, as it will be known as for the duration of the tournament, will host South Africa versus Japan and Samoa versus USA on the 19th and 20th September next year and the head of grounds maintenance believes it is an exciting opportunity for the club.
“The sockets will be set several inches below the pitch, so they’ll be sitting there and left alone until next year when we uncover them.
“We know exactly where they are of course, so we only have to excavate a small hole to find them and then link up with the posts that go in inside to set up the frame.
“It does alter our preparations slightly at the start of the 2015/16 season, but it’s great for the club to have two games played here.
“It will work quite well as long as we get the fixtures for the football to work around the Rugby World Cup, which should happen.”
Original article