Post by tenacres on Jul 11, 2017 20:26:19 GMT
I think this is probably a more complex situation than some appreciate.
Clearly the policy of laying a totally new pitch just a few days before the season starts was not well thought out and a bit risky. Given that we were laying a new pitch it should have been carried out in May or early June at the latest. Obviously our original plan of reseeding the pitch was deemed not to be producing a decent pitch, although on a couple of visits to the club in June it appeared to me to be coming along reasonably & I feel would have produced a pitch deemed playable by all parties for the friendly matches which were called off. Whether the reseeded pitch would have lasted the season is more doubtful so I understand the clubs eagerness to lay a new pitch (albeit any decision on laying a new pitch should have been taken many weeks earlier).
Having decided on a new pitch I get the feeling we didn't really carry out as much diligence as we could/should of done on the details of this significant purchase. It has the feeling of a bit of an "impulse buy". Given we were laying a pitch it would have made more sense to do so in a window of 2-3 weeks where we didn't have a home game, right at the start of that window and then with 14 or so clear days presumably the pitch would have been ready to go and opposition teams would have been content.
So essentially we've not really committed to either the reseeding or new pitch option (a bit like some of the managerial decisions last season) and paid a big price in the form of lost ticket money, season ticket sales, shirt sales and bad PR.
Having said all that, I looked at the pitch quite closely on Sunday it looked pretty good. I think on hearing it had been laid in the week before the game AFCW had pretty much made their minds up they didn't want to play and the "inspection" made by the 2 from AFCW was fairly incidental. The news has obviously had a domino effect onto this week, Portsmouth have heard the news that the game was called off & I think 75% of their minds were made up that they didn't want to play the game before they even looked at the pitch. Confirmation bias as its known.
Of course the "risk" could quite easily have come off with all the games being played. Is our pitch currently better or equal to the camrose where we are playing on tonight? I would imagine so. Will Bognors pitch on Saturday be of superior quality to the Silverlake on Saturday? I doubt it.
The thing thats done for us is that we finished laying our pitch just 2 days before our first game which goes against almost every "football persons" ingrained prejudice of pitch theory - that you do your work on the pitch at the start of the close season and let nature and the elements gradually bring the surface to readiness by the time the season starts.
Hopefully when the season proper starts it will be fantastic, withstand all weather that will inevitably come throughout the season. Then this unfortunate saga will be a minor footnote in our musings about this season next summer.
Clearly the policy of laying a totally new pitch just a few days before the season starts was not well thought out and a bit risky. Given that we were laying a new pitch it should have been carried out in May or early June at the latest. Obviously our original plan of reseeding the pitch was deemed not to be producing a decent pitch, although on a couple of visits to the club in June it appeared to me to be coming along reasonably & I feel would have produced a pitch deemed playable by all parties for the friendly matches which were called off. Whether the reseeded pitch would have lasted the season is more doubtful so I understand the clubs eagerness to lay a new pitch (albeit any decision on laying a new pitch should have been taken many weeks earlier).
Having decided on a new pitch I get the feeling we didn't really carry out as much diligence as we could/should of done on the details of this significant purchase. It has the feeling of a bit of an "impulse buy". Given we were laying a pitch it would have made more sense to do so in a window of 2-3 weeks where we didn't have a home game, right at the start of that window and then with 14 or so clear days presumably the pitch would have been ready to go and opposition teams would have been content.
So essentially we've not really committed to either the reseeding or new pitch option (a bit like some of the managerial decisions last season) and paid a big price in the form of lost ticket money, season ticket sales, shirt sales and bad PR.
Having said all that, I looked at the pitch quite closely on Sunday it looked pretty good. I think on hearing it had been laid in the week before the game AFCW had pretty much made their minds up they didn't want to play and the "inspection" made by the 2 from AFCW was fairly incidental. The news has obviously had a domino effect onto this week, Portsmouth have heard the news that the game was called off & I think 75% of their minds were made up that they didn't want to play the game before they even looked at the pitch. Confirmation bias as its known.
Of course the "risk" could quite easily have come off with all the games being played. Is our pitch currently better or equal to the camrose where we are playing on tonight? I would imagine so. Will Bognors pitch on Saturday be of superior quality to the Silverlake on Saturday? I doubt it.
The thing thats done for us is that we finished laying our pitch just 2 days before our first game which goes against almost every "football persons" ingrained prejudice of pitch theory - that you do your work on the pitch at the start of the close season and let nature and the elements gradually bring the surface to readiness by the time the season starts.
Hopefully when the season proper starts it will be fantastic, withstand all weather that will inevitably come throughout the season. Then this unfortunate saga will be a minor footnote in our musings about this season next summer.