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By Lee Jackson in Football on 20th May 2005 17:00
Renovation under lights
By Lee Jackson
Renovation time is here again at what is the end of our second season at the City of Manchester Stadium. The pitch hasn't looked as good as our first season, but has played every bit as well despite this, helped in a big way by the Desso Grassmaster reinforcement.
Over the winter months we suffered, as others did, by playing games in heavy rain-every game from mid-November to mid-February was played in rain that was a lot more than just drizzle, particularly back to back games over Christmas and New Year against West Brom and Southampton,which were played in what seemed like tropical downpours they were so heavy. As I said we weren't the only ones to suffer, and in some ways makes us appreciate how fortunate we had been with the weather in the two seasons prior to that.
The wet winter quickly accelerated algal growth on the soils surface and on television it looked like the pitch was flooded, in reality it was the shine of the algae off the glare of the floodlights giving a false impression as the pitch has been almost as free draining as it was in the first year.
Now renovation time is here, we are aiming to get rid of the algae by fraize mowing the surface as much as we can, taking into account the Desso fibres when doing so. The first vital part of the renovation work began after our penultimate game of the season when we applied Mossicide to the grass area to try to dry the algae up and make it easier for our contractor, Mallinsons, to do the work necessary.
When the Mossicide was applied, we couldn't cut three days before or after the application according to the manufacturer's guidelines. This, however, coincided with a warm and wet spell, so when we did cut the pitch with the Toro Reelmaster it had to be done three times in one day to get it down-in total this meant that the volume of grass amounted to having to empty the boxes 50 times-150 boxes in total!
Our height of cut has also been reduced in recent weeks from 26mm to 24mm to 22mm and finally at the 
Following this game we had two days of corporate games-one of these days involved almost 500 local school kids playing football, tennis, tag rugby and athletics-and then Mallinsons came in to do the work.
After two passes with the Koro, the pitch was cleaned up by ourselves using a grass rake to stand the Desso fibres upright, and cleaning off the remaining debris with the TM 5 sweeper.
It was then fertilised with a 12-18-12 pre-seed fertiliser at a rate of 25g per square metre, this was soon followed up by applying Barenbrugs Bar 7 mix at 45g per square metre, two passes with the dimple seeder complemented with two more with a disc seeder.
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Raking
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Sweeping
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Seeding
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Fertiliser / seed
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One thing we did differently, was to use Barenbrug's Bar 10 mix behind the south goal line, this area has suffered more than most as it has
Fortunately, throughout these works, the weather held well, dry in the day with very little rain at night making the pitch ideal to work with, though the irrigation soon corrected that after the work was completed.
As with most large stadiums, the south west corner sees no light at all even in the summer, so we are using the lights to push the seed through in the corner.
Irrigation is still possible so long as we do not use the sprinklers near the rig, the closest ones overshoot the rig anyway, meaning water still gets on the area, with a lot more put on this area than anywhere else due to the quick drying under the lights.
The good thing about this work is that we did our bit as well, it would have been easy just to sit there and watch from the sides as Mallinsons did it all.
To keep on top of the algae problem we will fine tune our maintenance work throughout the summer and into the season, introducing, amongst other things, the use of Profile Greens from Rigby Taylor-this has been the choice of several top clubs and is an approach we will take as well and monitor the results as we go on.
In the last twelve months we have had the F.A. Summer tournament involving England, Iceland and Japan, Great Britain v Australia in the rugby tri-nations tournament and also had a sell-out 59,000 concert for the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, as well as finishing this season in our highest ever place in the Premiership.
The coming summer sees us hosting the opening game of the women's Euro 2005 tournament (we should have had both semis and the final, but they clashed with U2 so they are now being played at some of the smaller clubs in the area).
Two nights of U2 (capacity around 55,000 each night).
Three nights of Oasis (capacity around 61,000 each night).
All highlighting the pulling power that both the club and the stadium now enjoys-obviously it involves more work and stress for everyone involved, but to say you have helped to stage these events makes you feel that you are doing your bit to put the club further on the map.
It is also, more importantly on a personal note, a good benchmark or measuring our capabilities as Groundsmen. Following the concerts we have just 4 ½ weeks before a possible friendly, so summer will soon pass us by-assuming we have one!
Anyway, enough from us here at City obviously we wont be the only ones with a lot to deal with this summer so good luck to everyone out there this summer, as we await our next game in just two weeks!
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Watering near the lights
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Read more articles in Football,
by Lee Jackson
or from May 2005.
There are 11 comments on this article
22 May 2005 by Bert
We keep reading about these lights being used now in stadiums-are they that good, and why dont more people have them if they are?
23 May 2005 by Paul K(THFC)
Hi lee,interesting article im glad your renovations ran smootly. We are about halfway through the whole process at the moment. We heve been using Profile for a while now with some good results.It dosent cure the problem (sadly) but it certainly takes the shine of the algae and provides better traction for the players and for us when trying to turn the mowers on slippy ends.
We worked hard on combating the algae last season with a stricter maintenance programme of aeration and brushing and concentrating on sorting our trace elements out to get that sterile world that is a sand based pitch working harder-can u let us know how you go this season with the algae lee? Have a nice summer fellas.
23 May 2005 by Dave Saltman
Hi Paul,
We have had Field Science in at the Millennium to talk about trace element deficiency. How much of an impact have you had using the products?
Obviously one of our problems is the relatively short periods that the turf remains on the pitch. However if all that is told is believed then a balanced nutritional program could provide a longer lasting surface.
Best wishes to you, Darren and all at THFC.
24 May 2005 by LEE J
Paul,Unfortunately we couldnt go as deep as we would have liked with the Koro due to the game next week and two training sessions the day before as well. We are trying the Profile/more aeration/less tractor use to avoid the build up again, as with Dave we have also been talking to Field Science as well to see what they can do for us
24 May 2005 by Paul K (THFC)
Hi Dave hope you are well mate.We have been using the trace elements programme from field science in conjunction with our normal fertiliser for around a year and a half now. In terms of the algae its difficult to say what effect its had because of the way we have tried to tackle it last season in our maintenance programme. However our soil results from different sources show that the more minor elements in the rootzone are reaching satisfactory to good levels now and these are not applied through your standard fertilser-so we are more confident now that our rootzone is working effiently in trying to breakdown organic matter.
Hello lee im sorry you have such a difficult schedule -in this respect we are more fortunate(if the weather settles down and we actually get finished.)Like you we keep the weight of ,use the profile,regular aeration.During last winter we would cut certain parts of the pitch with the lighter rotaries for presentaion so we didnt crush the life out the grass. This summer we will cut for longer with the rotaries because we feel that the hoovering nature of the rotaries sucks a better percentage of the clippings up and we will be monitoring the amount of water going on tighter than weve ever done.I think ive drove people involved with our water to depair recently with the number of questions ive been asking .We are continually scrutinising our maintenance to tweak anything that may cause a larger percentage of algae to build up. We are happier now with the rootzone which we aim to keep with a similar feeding programme for next season- to work hand in hand with(hopefully)an improving maintenance programme.
24 May 2005 by Dave Saltman
Thx for that Paul, I'm keeping well ty.
With regards the algae build up, how much surface tining do you do? I know that there is a balance between machinery operations and the shade problems at the Lane, but maybe sarrel spiking and increasing air flow could go some way to drying out the surface and preventing the algae growth.
I think that the fertiliser regimes that we all seem to use also encourage algal growth, but it will struggle to grow if the surface is kept dry.
Our problems in Cardiff include algal growth, but recent spiking operations using an old Pattison borrowed from Cardiff City (thx Wayne and Phil) have been a big help.
I am looking at incorporating some big fans along the pitch, similar to those used in the USA on the golf courses and at the Amsterdam Arena as well. Watering at night, removing dampness/dew in the mornings, encouraging good air flow will all help.
I also agree that the use of rotary mowers to keep the grass standing upright and removing all clippings is a major benefit not just in the summer but through the season. In fact as much as time allows any of us to spend eight man hours cutting one pitch!!
25 May 2005 by Paul K (THFC)
Hi Dave
During last season we aerated about once a month or every 2 matches. We aerated 4 times with the Verti Drain -may,august,late october and early march -then in betweeen times with the Pro core regularly.
This summer Dave we are hopeful of buying the pedestien Toro aerater which will give us similar results to a tractor mounted pro core but without the weight. Also with this machine we can concentrate on more localised areas of spiking if the need arises during the season without worrying about the tractor wheels crushing the life out of the thinner areas.
We were careful this season with the aeration during December and january. The previous season we lost a lot of grass around this time after aeration so this season we worked the ground harder whilst it was still growing-got the deep aeration with the verti drain late october before winter set in then kept as much weight of as possible until march time. The pro coring after would keep the top three or four inches connected to the deeper verti drain holes.
Same as you Dave we trialled some fans and with good results and are hopeful we will have some soon. We want the south end of the pitch to dry out in the morning at a similar speed to the rest of the pitch so we actually cut a drier sward more often.
I will let you know later this summer in an article as to how our summerworks have gone with regards to the algae(thats in writing now Dave i will have to do it!)
25 May 2005 by Dave Saltman
I await the article now mate!!
I know we all sing from the same hymn sheet, but for the benefit of other members........
I think that too many people think that pitches don't need aerating in the spring to the autumn months, for one reason. The surface appears to cope with any rainfall, due to the warmer temperatures, the grass's ability to uptake water during the growing period and less rainfall.
Regular spiking at different depths as you so rightly point out, avoids any panning of the profile and provides copious amounts of air space for the grass roots to colonise. All of this means a stronger and healthier plant when we move towards the dormant winter months.
A continued program of spiking, again as you suggest using light pedestrian machines will not bruise or flatten the grass as much during the winter months. This will allow water percolation and oxygen to keep the roots healthy.
We all know that roots regress in the colder months, but the longer the roots in the summer/autumn the better the chance of keeping a reasonable sward, tolerant of wear.
Anyway, the working practices that you have employed at Spurs are certainly paying dividends. The pitch looked magnificent for the 04/05 season.
Good luck for the coming weeks-catch up soon.
28 May 2005 by Bernard
Hi Lee,
Totally unrelated I know BUT,
I do casual work running the Stadium Tours at C.O.M. I like to give as much detail as possible about the pitch and explain to visitors the Desso system.
Being a mere mortal i would (and I am sure the other Guides would too) to have some samples of the seed fibres that are used in the system. A cross section sample of the system would be even better maybe in a glass container near ti the Tunnel mouth.
I would be very pleased if you could leave any samples for me (us) at the Manchester City Experience desk with my name on.
Carry on the good work,
Bernard Judge Tour Guide MCFC
9 Jun 2005 by Steve Patrick
Hi Lee, Good article, nice to see you doing your best to reduce contractor costs at man city, keep up the good work eh !!
All the best to you and Roy,
Steve Patrick, Grounds Manager, Small local club in the area.
10 Jun 2005 by Lee
Should have been smaller stadiums I think!
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