New Pitch in the summer.

[davieG]

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/leicester-city-plan-king-power-4957077

 

Leicester City plan King Power Stadium update to help players' game amid under-par home form
City will do a full refurbishment of the surface at their home ground this summer after the club's head groundsman admitting the pitch was now 'showing its age'

ByJordan Blackwell
14:28, 2 FEB 2021UPDATED14:33, 2 FEB 2021

Leicester City plan to lay a new surface at the King Power Stadium this summer after the club's head groundsman admitted the pitch was “showing its age”.

While renovated every year, the 18-year-old surface requires a full refurbishment, which will take place in the off-season and will then provide Brendan Rodgers and his players with “that fast pitch that really helps our game.”

City had planned to do the work last summer, but the quick turnaround caused by the Covid-19 pandemic saw City’s grounds staff do their yearly revamp of the grass, rather than laying a completely new surface.

With Europa League matches and a busy schedule, City have played a lot of games on the King Power Stadium pitch this season, and head groundsman John Ledwidge tweeted before Sunday’s defeat to Leeds to say it was “showing its age”, with the “soil profile poor” and “recovery slow”.

Explaining City plans, Ledwidge added: “It is renovated yearly. Imagine it like this, it’s the difference between repairing a wall every year versus knocking it down and rebuilding. We are at the rebuild stage.”

When the new pitch goes in, Rodgers has said it will benefit his team, with the current surface heavier than they would like.

“John’s a fantastic groundsman, he’s very good at his job,” the City boss said. “The training pitches here at the new training facility are absolutely brilliant.

“I know his plan going forward for the summer is to get us that fast pitch that really helps our game.

“It’s been unfortunate. He wanted to do it in the summer but because of Covid and everything else, we weren’t able to do that. That makes it a lot heavier and takes the speed out of it a little bit more.

“It’s okay, we know where we’re at with that, I have regular communication with John, him and his team of staff do a great job. We hope in the summer we can get it to a really high level that really helps our game.”

Not being able to play the game they want could be a factor in City’s poorer home form this term. City’s defeat to Leeds was their fifth in the Premier League at the King Power Stadium, more than in the whole of last term.

[Tuna]

It's 18 years old ???

[jammie82uk]

I was reading his thread and replies on Sunday it was very interesting the stuff he wants to do to improve the drainage like installing a sub air system

[AKCJ]

2 minutes ago, Tuna said:

It's 18 years old ???

I had to re-read it after seeing that comment. I thought it said 18 month.

[NewquayFox]

I wonder if the main pitch at the new training facility has this ‘sub air’ system, it a shame we can’t play our home matches there but I’m guessing with the VAR system set up at the KP that wouldn’t be transferable, plus other things stopping it... 

[UniFox21]

6 minutes ago, Tuna said:

It's 18 years old ???

I assume it's the whole thing being that age, as i swear we've relayed the pitch several times. 

[Silva Fox]

1 minute ago, UniFox21 said:

I assume it's the whole thing being that age, as i swear we've relayed the pitch several times. 

Sounds like Trigger's broom! 

 

 

[jammie82uk]

5 minutes ago, Tuna said:

It's 18 years old ???

Yeah John explained it on Twitter as mentioned in the article, they “patch” it up every season but they will be going for a full rebuild 

 

 

[Babylon]

9 minutes ago, Tuna said:

It's 18 years old ???

In terms of the whole thing, drainage, base layers etc. I know we all just see the grass, but that's just one layer. 

[Happy Fox]

It would be nice to have the stadium expansion coinciding as well?

[adejo92]

For saying that pitch is 18 years old, and is arguably the best pitch in the league besides maybe Old Trafford, Emirates and recently Tottenham Hotspur,  its real credit to our ground staff.

 

Blaming home form on the pitch is a bit of a cop out though.

Edited 3 February 2021 by adejo92

[Incognito]

When the Desso Grassmaster pitch was installed under Sven, was the structure underneath not changed?

 

My knowledge of the sports turf industry is non-existant to say the least.

[deep blue]

That's interesting, because last Sunday a lot of our passing was off and many passes seemed to be underhit (several enabling troublesome interceptions by Leeds players).  I put it down to our players having an off day but, as it seemed to spread throughout the team, I just wonder whether the state of the surface ("sticky"?) may have been a factor.

Edited 3 February 2021 by deep blue
Correction

[TrentFox]

If we are playing half our remaining games on a slow pitch at the KP, surely it make sense to have a slow pitch at Seagrave? It’s a pretty basic to make practice as similar to event conditions as possible. Given the number of pitches at Seagrave, surely they can have one equally as slow? 

[Raw Dykes]

3 minutes ago, TrentFox said:

If we are playing half our remaining games on a slow pitch at the KP, surely it make sense to have a slow pitch at Seagrave? It’s a pretty basic to make practice as similar to event conditions as possible. Given the number of pitches at Seagrave, surely they can have one equally as slow? 

Very good point.

[Pliskin]

49 minutes ago, AKCJ said:

I had to re-read it after seeing that comment. I thought it said 18 month.

And me, so much so I interrupted the Mrs. to tell her. 

[UHDrive]

Assuming the stadium redevelopment wont affect the new pitch as I'm guessing the pitch revamp is going to cost a few million.

[Guest Mickyblueeyes]

1 hour ago, Tuna said:

It's 18 years old ???

To be fair, the first 10 of those 18 years fell in the early 2000s. Our "style" back then meant we didnt really play much football on it for the first 10 years of the 18. 

[volpeazzurro]

2 hours ago, davieG said:

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/leicester-city-plan-king-power-4957077

 

Leicester City plan King Power Stadium update to help players' game amid under-par home form
City will do a full refurbishment of the surface at their home ground this summer after the club's head groundsman admitting the pitch was now 'showing its age'

ByJordan Blackwell
14:28, 2 FEB 2021UPDATED14:33, 2 FEB 2021

Leicester City plan to lay a new surface at the King Power Stadium this summer after the club's head groundsman admitted the pitch was “showing its age”.

While renovated every year, the 18-year-old surface requires a full refurbishment, which will take place in the off-season and will then provide Brendan Rodgers and his players with “that fast pitch that really helps our game.”

City had planned to do the work last summer, but the quick turnaround caused by the Covid-19 pandemic saw City’s grounds staff do their yearly revamp of the grass, rather than laying a completely new surface.

With Europa League matches and a busy schedule, City have played a lot of games on the King Power Stadium pitch this season, and head groundsman John Ledwidge tweeted before Sunday’s defeat to Leeds to say it was “showing its age”, with the “soil profile poor” and “recovery slow”.

Explaining City plans, Ledwidge added: “It is renovated yearly. Imagine it like this, it’s the difference between repairing a wall every year versus knocking it down and rebuilding. We are at the rebuild stage.”

When the new pitch goes in, Rodgers has said it will benefit his team, with the current surface heavier than they would like.

“John’s a fantastic groundsman, he’s very good at his job,” the City boss said. “The training pitches here at the new training facility are absolutely brilliant.

“I know his plan going forward for the summer is to get us that fast pitch that really helps our game.

“It’s been unfortunate. He wanted to do it in the summer but because of Covid and everything else, we weren’t able to do that. That makes it a lot heavier and takes the speed out of it a little bit more.

“It’s okay, we know where we’re at with that, I have regular communication with John, him and his team of staff do a great job. We hope in the summer we can get it to a really high level that really helps our game.”

Not being able to play the game they want could be a factor in City’s poorer home form this term. City’s defeat to Leeds was their fifth in the Premier League at the King Power Stadium, more than in the whole of last term.

I too am showing my age and in need of refurbishment. 

[Guest SO1]

http://www.grandstandinc.com/pages/26878.htm

No profit opportunity should be wasted. Where else are we going to get the cash to pay for the goals we need to do it again? C'mon Jon cut it up and sell it.

[sacreblueits442]

1 hour ago, TrentFox said:

If we are playing half our remaining games on a slow pitch at the KP, surely it make sense to have a slow pitch at Seagrave? It’s a pretty basic to make practice as similar to event conditions as possible. Given the number of pitches at Seagrave, surely they can have one equally as slow? 

...it is not the norm though!!!

This is a situation that has happened out of the blue. We have no opportunity to treat the pitch as we would have done in a regular off season. 

  Next season we will be able to do what is required, there is no need to cater for something like this.

 

[AjcW]

Arsenal have that sub surface vacuum system. The commentators had to apologise for it the other night because it was so loud  normally you wouldn't hear it because of crowd but it was the main hum in the background throughout.

[Raw Dykes]

12 minutes ago, sacreblueits442 said:

...it is not the norm though!!!

This is a situation that has happened out of the blue. We have no opportunity to treat the pitch as we would have done in a regular off season. 

  Next season we will be able to do what is required, there is no need to cater for something like this.

I think you may have misread. No-one's saying we have an opportunity to relay the pitch before  the end of the season.

 

@TrentFox was suggesting altering one of the many pitches at Seagrave to copy the current condition of the KP pitch. The players would be able to get used to the slower pitch before each home game. I think it's a great idea. Why not do that?

[evil jack]

Still miss those patterns we had during the 15/16 season - especially the evening games. Our pitch was stunning.

[sacreblueits442]

1 hour ago, Raw Dykes said:

I think you may have misread. No-one's saying we have an opportunity to relay the pitch before  the end of the season.

 

@TrentFox was suggesting altering one of the many pitches at Seagrave to copy the current condition of the KP pitch. The players would be able to get used to the slower pitch before each home game. I think it's a great idea. Why not do that?

....I  understood what he was saying...just that I am saying it is a freak situation!!!

  I suspect you mean growing the grass longer to slow the pitch down. 

 Not sure how you got to me saying we need to relay the pitch now but that was not what I was saying. 

  Should we attempt to replicate the condition of the pitch we would have to cut up a training pitch to mimic the KP surface or failing that train on KP pitch itself.