In City's 100 year odd history there were maybe five seasons when RL in Hull at one of the clubs got bigger crowds then we did. That's is because they were at the top of their game and we were at the bottom of ours. I don't know where this 'football does more damage then rugby to the pitch' argument comes from either. Boothferry Park had one of the best playing surfaces in the country and the boulevard one of the worst. it wasn't even level. Maximise the stadiums use? All for that. We could start by filling the ground to its capacity for a start and not discarding 500 odd seats because of segregation. How do all the other Premier League stadium survive who don't have to ground share? Perhaps we could do to go and have a proper look at them, starting with Manchester City who have got it spot on. Any businessman would tell you that the only way FC and HKR to be successful in todays world would be to either merge or ground share. Craven Park is a decent enough rugby league ground now and would be adequate and profitable. Its also a disgrace that out of 12 club league Hull's so-called 'giants of RL' cannot even make the top eight play-off's again. But of course the local media, and those who depend on it for a living, will never press that point home and start asking questions as to why they continually under perform. If the KC pitch does look fantastic at the start of the season in will be down to the investment Hull City have put in and nothing else. Rugby League continues to hold football back in this city because, simply, Hull is not big enough to support three professional sports clubs these days. Thirty odd years ago, yes, but things have moved on, and it's time we did.
The problem with ground sharing with the tubbys, is we're getting global exposure in the biggest domestic sporting competition in the world, and the whole world sees our pitch with tacky rugby lines defacing it. It's abhorrent, they struggle to fill half the stadium at the best of times and the football club has to subsidise their bloody rent. There's no place for them at the KC, they've outstayed their welcome, and the sooner they go into liquidation the better.
Bus driver, in fairness the football doing more damage argument is actually what groundsmen say. Somewhere on the inter web there's an article with a groundsman explaining it it detail, but last time this topic arose I couldn't find it for love nor money.
The fact that Rugby is played through the summer months to a large degree when the grass is growing, probably allows it to recover better from wear and tear than in the winter. Though these lights then have now obviously help.
The main thing about it is that in rugby the wear is spread evenly across the pitch. In football you have 'hotspots', the wings take a beating, the goal mouths take a beating, around the edge of the 18 yard box takes a beating due to the amount of heavy traffic in these areas, amongst others. Rugby also isn't so omnidirectional* as football and changing direction at speed rips far bigger gouges in the turf than just running or standing on it, and there's a lot of instant directional changes in football in a full 360 degree radius and at speed, a lot more than rugby. Those were the main factors behind the higher pitch wear from football, off the top of my head. *not sure if that's the right word.
It does make sense what you say, I guess that is why they have these lights now that can assist generating growth in these "hot Spots"
Hull FC do ground share are you suggesting they would be more successful if the shared a different ground? Are you suggesting it makes sense to move Hull City to Melton?
Its easy to forget where we've come from, now we are riding the crest of a wave it would be convenient for us to own the ground and be its sole occupants, but the ground would never have been built if we didn't ground share and I dare say we wouldn't be playing European football and competing in cup finals. Personally I would love the KC to become City's ground and for Hull FC to have their own rugby stadium (similar to saints/warrington), the first step towards that would be our owner being willing to purchase the KC and he isn't so its a non starter.
The argument about which does more damage is pointless, but it must be accepted by all that having two teams on the pitch, regardless of which sport, causes more wear and this is why we have a lot of problems with it. We've got the heat lamps now which seemed to help this winter just gone cos it didn't get as bad as usual from memory. But the fact we've got a team playing on it when the pitch isn't ready is ridiculous. How come they couldn't move it? How long have we been planning to relay the pitch over the summer? Given their stance on the FA Cup final and Magic Weekend clash, I bet the RFL have something to do with that. Awkward ****s.
h They haven't played a home game for nearly 2 months, I think that's pretty accommodating by Hull FC and the RFL, if Hull City had to play 6 away fixtures in a row there'd be uproar on here.
I've seen that said a few times, do you have a link to the quote, because my recollection is they said more damage was done during the football season, which isn't the same thing.
If it's not possible to accommodate the time needed to relay the pitch during the summer then that suggests the ground-share isn't feasible. But it has been possible in other summers however, so what's different this time?
God knows. Every year they say it's being fully relaid and that it's never been done like this before, "last year was just a partial relay" etc. I'm not sure they even know.
They've dug up the whole pitch and replaced it before, but this is the first time they've dug all the way down to the undersoil heating pipes to repair them.
And just came to my recollection that the groundsman who was doing the article was saying that there's a lot more work to do after a football match than a rugby match.
Again, that could be a consequence of the time of year more than the sport, plus RL doesn't need as high a quality of playing surface and keeps the grass longer, so less effects from cutting.
