Why is Wembley surface so bad

dbnavan

I have seen Lansdowne in better shape, what was the story with the pitch last night. Its a brand new stadium and it looked like the pitch had been bombed!

PHB

American Football match a few weeks ago?

Fratton Fred

PHB wrote: »

American Football match a few weeks ago?

You could see where the American game had worn the pitch, mainly along what would have been the touchline for that game (Amazing how narrow an American pitch is).

I think Wembley will suffer from the micro climate syndrome that a lot of large grounds suffer from. I guess that a pitch will also need time to bed in a bit as well, it is still relatively new.

pd101

I was wondering that myself. From some angles you could still see the american football markings on the pitch. But its been a while since that game was on, you would think they could have had the bitch in a better state than that.

chopperbyrne

Okay, but it rained for that whole NFL match, so why didn't they close the roof?

It rained yesterday. Why didn't they close the roof?

Croke Park has four matches every weekend during the summer and it's not in that bad shape.

Fratton Fred

chopperbyrne wrote: »

Okay, but it rained for that whole NFL match, so why didn't they close the roof?

It rained yesterday. Why didn't they close the roof?

Croke Park has four matches every weekend during the summer and it's not in that bad shape.

No roof at Wembley is why.

Croke park has a low stand on one end which will allow the wind to dry the pitch naturally and allow more light in letting the grass grow better.

daveirl

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ciaran76

Also they played an u21 game on the pitch before it had time to settle and have been playing catch up ever since. Its basically a combination of things.

I think there was also concerts there so the pitch would have been blocked from the light.

Also read somewhere that the drainage system is not up to scratch there.

jameshayes

It was a disgrace considering they were giving out about the russian pitch!

They should have got some of the pitch-caretakers help from the US, tips and info... i'm sure the damage control is different for AF

Spud83

New Pitch + NFL Game + Bad Weather + (concerts maybe i dunno if any were on)= Crap Pitch.

The problem is Wembley cost so much, ran over budget and was delayed a good bit that they have to get as many events in it as possible to make financial viable. This means that the surface for international games is not getting as much consideration in scheduling as it should be.

godtabh

PHB wrote: »

American Football match a few weeks ago?

That match was about 4/5 weeks ago and you could still see the pitch markings. Looks like they did no work on the pitch at all inbetween

chopperbyrne

Fratton Fred wrote: »

No roof at Wembley is why.

Croke park has a low stand on one end which will allow the wind to dry the pitch naturally and allow more light in letting the grass grow better.

Was a retractable roof not the reason it was costing so much in the first place???

Mitch Connor

the retractable roofm that it does have, only extends to cover the seating. Wouldn't want to get the suits wet.

Fratton Fred

chopperbyrne wrote: »

Was a retractable roof not the reason it was costing so much in the first place???

The reason it cost so much is that they also rebuilt a tube station and a rail station, as well as building the biggest football stadium in the world (In terms of overall size, not capacity). You need to see Wembley to appreciate how big the thing is.

It also has worl class media facilities, hospitality facilities etc but, primarily, it was built by a bunch of morons so the cost got out of control.:rolleyes:

For example, the forst plans included a Hotel, despite the fact Brent council had told them that under no circumstances should it have a hotel, that added a fortune. Then they designed it, issued planning permission and someone pointed out that one end of the arch was in someone elses property, so they had to re-design it and re-issue the designs etc.

I tell ya, Landsdowne will be professionally done compared to Wembley.

event

kearnsr wrote: »

That match was about 4/5 weeks ago and you could still see the pitch markings. Looks like they did no work on the pitch at all inbetween

three and a half weeks ago

the weather didnt help either, but no excuse, it should be in better condition.

they shouldnt really be having NFL games during england games though, what was wrong with waiting until around now?

Spud83

event wrote: »

three and a half weeks ago

the weather didnt help either, but no excuse, it should be in better condition.

they shouldnt really be having NFL games during england games though, what was wrong with waiting until around now?

Well obviously the NFL had an idea of when the wanted the game played. Its coming into the holiday season now with Thanksgiving and Christmas so maybe the clubs didn't want to force their players to have to travel for a week to try promote the game.

Mossy Monk

event wrote: »

they shouldnt really be having NFL games during england games though, what was wrong with waiting until around now?

I don't think it was up to the people that run Wembley to decide when the NFL game could be played outside of North America.

event

aye, what i meant was that they should surely put the england team ahead fo an NFL game

i know it isnt up to them, but when negotiations were taking place and october was mentioned, they could have said no, cant happen until after englands last game

Mossy Monk

But they also could have said "We desperately need the money to pay for the place."

event

yeah, but how much have the lost now that they havent qualified

not that the pitch was directly responsible, but it just seems silly that FA's put money before the countrys performance

daveirl

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Chardee MacDennis

jameshayes wrote: »

It was a disgrace considering they were giving out about the russian pitch!

They should have got some of the pitch-caretakers help from the US, tips and info... i'm sure the damage control is different for AF

not many real grass pitches in the nfl, i think they're all synthetic now.