Well have got rid of two Fir Park pitches
Motherwell have spent a small fortune on replacing their pitch because the previous one was costing them well over £100,000 a year to maintain.
The Fir Park playing surface has been voted the best in Scotland twice in the last six years.
Despite that, the club’s chief executive, Alan Burrows, has revealed that it was a loss-making, constant source of stress for club staff. But he’s convinced the new one will be the best yet.
“We were having all sorts of problems, and it was only down to the skill of our groundsman, Paul Matthew – and luck with the weather – that we didn’t have a pile of postponements,” said Burrows.
“Even then, we had a number of pitch inspections last season, some which people knew about, and others they didn’t.
“We managed to get through on each occasion, but it means that you’re unable to plan in advance for things like buying food for the kiosks, which you don’t want to do if your game is going to be off.
“We spent a six-figure sum last season just renovating the old surface, but you can’t do that year-on-year.
“We won awards for having the best pitch in the country – again, down to Paul – but that was just papering over the cracks.
“The problems with the drainage, in particular, were so bad that we couldn’t host Under-21, youth and women’s international matches or Challenge Cup Finals, all of which we used to do.
“Fortunately, because of the transfer fee we received from Celtic for David Turnbull, we had the resources to start from scratch once the season finished.
“It turns out that part of the problem was the pitch we’ve just dug up had been built on top of the previous one.
“That didn’t help with the drainage issues – it was a disaster zone. Now we’ve removed both of them, and also reduced the slope on the pitch by about half.
“We’ve become the fourth club in Scotland to install a hybrid surface – that’s 95% grass, strengthened by synthetic fibres – after Celtic, Rangers and Hearts.
“It’s been expensive, but it will pay for itself within 10 years because the payments we’ve been making for renovations will drop by 75% each season.
“And we’ll also be able to commercialise the pitch by having those extra games on it. None of that money will come out of manager Graham Alexander’s budget. We only spend when it will ensure you either save money, or make money – and this should do both.”