Plans to reintroduce artificial pitches in English football will be discussed at the Football League's annual general meeting in Portugal this week. Any-one else remember the pitches at QPR, Luton and was it Preston? Not good back then but as with the tracks in Horse Racing technology means they would be of a much higher quality now. What do we all think good or bad?
I understand that these pitches have all improved dramatically and will reduce the number of cancelled matches and be cost effective for lower league clubs. However, unless they play identically to grass will give the home team an advantage. We have (or will have) a synthetic pitch at the training ground, so it would be interesting to know what the players think of it. Ideally a whole league (perhaps League 2) need to switch at the same time, but some won't want to as I suspect initial cost is high. I'm a traditionalist and like grass, but I bet this happens in the future.
I'm sure a few people on here have played on the various 3G pitches. Compared to the bouncy sand pitches they're a cut above. I have not played at the goals complex at millbrook for a while and they have a much older version of the 3G pitch but it appears to survive outside. If rugby can be played on them then I think clubs like Wycombe would benefit the most.
Have to admit to being a traditionalist as well and prefer grass. The argument about matches being called off because of the weather doesn't hold for me. Most games are called off because of frost or snow so how will that improve with artificial grass? The drainage under these pitches has to be equal too or even better than the drainage under current pitches. I agree that they have improved the all weather pitches since their launch but certainly the last time I played on one they are still lethal when combined with snow and frost. Over the course of a season how many games are postponed because of the pitch? I am not sure any improvement in those figures will justify the costs involved for most clubs. The next question would be for me would you have to rip these pitches up if you are promoted to the premier?
I think the discussion should go some-thing like this.... # Shall we allow artificial pitches then? ## No. # Ok then, that's that settled
I play on the 3G pitches every week at Pro-5, and they're great. Better than the majority of grass pitches I've played on.
