Stadium Expansion

It's a cover up for seats ripped out during the anti-Mazzarri protests on Sunday.

 

Oh dont tell me they re going to rip the stadium down now ?

 

Gino asset stripping. Cheapskate needs a new dining room chair set.

 

Do any of you stadium experts on here know how when building the SEJ, they managed to negate the slope of the pitch so that the Vic Road end of the stand is at pitch level unlike the GT stand where the first few rows are beneath it? I'm aware that the GT stand is actually built level hence why the pitch is higher at that end due to it's slope - but the fact that the SEJ is level with the pitch for it's entire length would suggest that they built that stand on a (albeit slight) decline, yet when sitting and walking around it, it seems to be dead flat/level (as well as when looking at it from the other side of the pitch)?

It's intrigued me for ages. Anybody know the answer?!

 

The original phase (when it had steps up at the front of the stand) was built perfectly horizontal. When they extended the front with a few bolt-on rows they changed the angle of the slope in each section of the seats - if you look at the stand from the Rookery end when it's completely empty you can see the change in angle really clearly.


(Not my picture or from the Rookery, but you can make out the change angle on the left is much sharper than on the right).

 

Ahh ok, that would make sense, thanks. But this would mean that at the join of each section, due to the angle change there must be a slight ridge? I've never noticed one, I'll have to have a closer look next time I'm there.

Do you reckon this soultion to negating the slope was why they built the stand with the front rows missing to begin with, or was it a just a case of cramming in extra seats for the prem which conveniently presented them with an opportunity to get around the slope issue?!

 

racists

 

Good plan and gives a whole new line in excuses like, 'the tide was out', or 'it was just to choppy for our game plan today'...

 

If I were the one designing it, I'd make each row between the tunnels perfectly level and have the seats the other side of the tunnel slightly lower. This would make the 'step' much more difficult to see unless you were particularly observant/bored/sad.

I'm not sure, I think perhaps the raised stand was an 'off the shelf' standard design which can be erected quickly and provide the capacity increase we needed in the shortest time possible. But they obviously left a large enough gap at the front for the future expansion (originally it was a long way from the touchline), so I'd expect that the fabricator recommended the design with the hill in mind. In other words, the manufacturer probably had the hill in mind but the club perhaps didn't (until it was pointed out to them).

 

This was posted on twitter today by Dougie Brimson. Thought it might be of interest to anybody like me that has a strange fascination of things going on at Vicarage Road. Question for Stevohorn - is this just basic pre-season maintenance or something else (my knowledge of turf amounts to keeping the grass short to stop the weeds taking over)?

 

Yes, standard practice for all groundsmen these days.
At seasons end you first scarify heavily.. aiming to to remove as much plant life as possible. This operation will be followed with a heavy sand top dressing and overseed. What you see every new season is effectively a new pitch.. or rather new grass plants.


PS Good to see the Bulldog Power banner gone. The stand looks a lot better without it i'd say.

 

The Bulldog banner disappeared at some point in the middle of the season.

 

Yeah thought it had.
But thought i'd mention it now because of the pic.

 

With the bolded bit in mind, what happened pre-Pozzo when our pitch just progressively looked more worse for wear as the seasons went on until we finally got a new pitch in 2013 or 2014? Was our pitch still being effectively replaced every summer?

 

Good question.. that takes a bit of answering.

You have to think about what is meant by "pitch" To most people that means the turf surface ie the grass. To groundsmen it can mean anything from the grass to the entire structure.. the rootzone, drainage layers, drainage pipes, irrigation system and undersoil heating.
The common post season practise i spoke of is to scarify away the grass plant and that happens every season.. or at least should. This can also be to varying depths depending on how much material you feel needs removing. The groundsman would normally take core samples to check for thatch (a layer of dead and decaying matter under the surface) and scarify accordingly.
After a number of years (7 is typical) you would look at possibly replacing the rootzone and underlying material.. maybe even relaying the drainage. The reason for this is because even though modern day pitches are predominantly sand based they do contain some organic material in the mix and this can become compromised and/or compacted, forming an unwanted layer. To do this major work takes excavators digging down or skimming the surface.. rather than scarifiers towed behind tractors.

So in answering your question i would say yes we would have done the same work we are doing now every season but what we did a few seasons back was to remove all the material from the rootzone and effectively relay a new pitch.

 

Ok I get that. So that implies that work was still being done to our pitch in the past and it wasn't the groundsmen getting orders from above (*cough* BBB/Salad Bros *cough*) in a cost-cutting measure. Cheers for the reply!

 

Well there is that.
No one really checks up or really understands what the groundsman are up to half the time, so it's easy to cut corners without anyone noticing (except those paying the bills!)
Added to which i know we had contracted groundsmen for many of those years. Even though those contractors had a good reputation it makes it even easier to tell them not to carry out certain operations.

 

How do they keep the grass weed free anyway?

I've tried, bleach, diesel, boiling water, all manner of stuff on mine but all it does is kill the grass

 

What happened to the time-lapse cameras and automatic internet feed so we can all watch the grass grow?

Cameras have been there in recent close seasons - very disappointing - another example of WFC not connecting with the fans

Getting close-season withdrawal symptoms, I'll just have to compensate my fetish by watching some newly painted wall dry.
COYH

 

Do they do similar treatmnent to the training pitches at London Colney in the close season or is it just a poo pick before the start of each training session when they get back from their holidays?

 

They transport the old Vicarage Road pitch to London Colney after each season so the players have an "identical" playing surface to train on.
Pozzo's rock!

 

We have two "stadium quality" pitches at Colney.. which will have the same maintenance program as the Vic Road pitch. There are also a further 6-8 full sizes pitches i believe and they will be maintained to a lesser degree.. probably something akin to a top lower division pitch.

 

It's quite amazing how professional football has evolved over 40 years. As a schoolboy I would regularly see Watford players training in Cassiobury Park. Now WFC must spend £millions on maintaining the pitches at the stadium and training centre.

 

I heard that they had treated the top surface with a strong weed killer, is it reasonable to assume that is in fact the case before the scarifying?

 

The only thing i can think of there is that hey may have used a herbicide.. to kill off the old grass.

Pitches are sprayed with differing fertilisers, weed suppressors, iron etc on a regular basis but it wouldnt be normal to spray before the scarifying work as you are looking to take away the existing grass plants.

 

Posted by the club on twitter and FB:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10155173959431815

 

Very informative What you see there is the final part of the process.. over seeding,

This video from last season explains much more..





One thing i havent mentioned so far (as not to complicate matters) is the Desso fibers. After the turf stripping/ scarifying work is done most of the green stuff you see left isnt grass, it's the plastic Desso strands.

 

I would imagine some sort of broad leaf weedkiller that doesn't affect grass is used ?

MCPA /CMPP mix for example will kill most broad leaved seedlings like chickweed, buttercup, nettles etc and can be sprayed into established grass without harm in warm weather.

Stevo would know.

 

Interesting.

Here's a question for you Stevo, what species of grass is used for football pitches?

Is it a perennial ryegrass species (Lolium perenne) or a fescue or a mix of different species?
There are fine leaved fescue lawns where the grass is really soft but I'm not sure if that type of grass would be hard wearing enough for the treatment by football cleats trampling it?

I would imagine a stoloniferous type grass would be better for stability and wear and stop clods being dug out by boots (as happened when the new Wembley pitch was heavily criticised) but with the Desso system the roots bind to the artificial fibres so maybe a different grass can be used?
Desso mention 'hybrid' grass but don't indicate the actual grass species that they use, for commercial reasons I guess?

Do different grass species have different 'resistance' levels for the roll of the football, so specific grass varieties within a species or hybrids have been developed by specialist grass breeders?

It is these sort of questions that keep me awake at night lol.

But seriously, it is an interesting and specialist area that an expert like yourself would know.
The pitches these days look manicured and we take them for granted and anything not perfect is criticized as a cow patch so any enlightenment would be appreciated.

 

Well you've answered his question, but.. there are many types of selective weed killer for both home and commercial markets.
When i did stadium work i found very few weeds ever migrated to the pitch.. and these i just dug out by hand. I guess this is due to the enclosed environments of modern stadiums and the highly competitive nature of a constantly maintained turf surface. Added to this it's common these days to use some kind of weed suppressor.. often mixed with a liquid fertiliser.
In the golf world however it's more common to spray for post emergent weeds and also for sports pitches that are more out in the open.

PS I will answer your other question in a while but i'll need a coffee before tackling that one

 

Expert like me? Judging by your questions i think you know as much as i do! But see my attempted answers above

 

The finest lawn I ever saw - my dad's. It was mowed weekly with a Qualcast Concord, then some (words fail me) springy clips were attached (2 per tine, bought from an ad in the bag of The Sunday People) on the cylinder blade, the lawn was then "raked", or more correctly, scarified with these - removing all moss, mulch and anything with a broad leaf. The lawn looked a bit bare for the first year but that soon changed. Forty years later - it's still looking pretty good (even though the mower and attachments are long gone). Possibly not particularly applicable advice for the pitch at the Vic'.

 

Something like these?
http://www.jungle-busters.co.uk/Web...F4/7779/A18B/0A0F/1118/AE31/Qualcast_Tine.JPG

If you have the time and the inclination Scarifying your lawn will work wonders. Those lawn rakes that look the old push along cylinder mowers are also very good.

My simplest tip to improve the health off your lawn though is to start using a cylinder mower as opposed to a rotary.