This is really wonderful news

Well done the club

Plans look great but please no 4G pitch. We have the best pitch in the league will be a huge mistake.

4G is a must if we are going to gain revenue from it. I think it will suit our style of play anyway.

Why do you keep saying that when we don't?

Maybe that's how he remembers it from the last time he went years ago.

You just don’t get it do you.

Go on then, other than nostalgia what reason would it be a mistake.

Would it stop other teams coming to play? No

Would it stop a single fan from watching, other than you? No

Would it affect how we play? No, we can play as badly on grass as on 4G

Is grass better to play on? No not with the latest pitches, even a players father states his son prefers it.

So enlighten us all, what exactly are the downfalls?

I have a theory as to why some Wakey fans are making such a fuss about such an incidental side issue. I don't recall any of the fans of other great clubs such as Hull, Saints and Warrington making such an issue out of it, sad yes but claiming it a mistake! No.

Sad truth is that for the past 40 years the only thing about BV that we could justifiably be proud of was the pitch and the Floodlights. Floodlights are not very emotive, pitches more so. Truth is that after a few games, especially if we play well, everyone will have forgotten that there is a new pitch, it will just be BV.

Surely the bigger issue is what will happen to Steve The Bath (If he's still even at the club)?

Surely he can be re-cycled! Losing him would be a huge mistake!!

he does wash the kits as well

There must be some sort of maintenance requirements for the artificially turf. Anyway I would like to get my name down for 1st dibs on the redundant lawnmower.

The new generation pitches still need maintenance.

Plus I think people will be surprised how much other stuff Steve does around the place.

It's a big job running a ground.

I'm going to bore people with a report on 3G/4G pitches at some point, still putting it together.

3G/4G pitches do not require any real maintenance, certainly when compared to grass. Truth is a part of the current groundsman job would be redundant but as you say I'm sure there is still plenty for him to do.

Basically, they require a wash down once or twice a day depending on use and conditions. The only serious job is the pitch markings which I will report on later. Multi-use means multi markings and the adding and removal thereof, that's a job in its own right, well nearly. As I say, his job is probably safe.

A point to remember is that with heavy use, as i guess will be the plan, artificial pitches need replacing relatively regularly. Widnes’ i-pitch (which was a new generation pitch at the time in advance of a traditional 3G one) was shot to bits when they replaced it after 7 years. It cost about 300K to do. As theirs was council owned Halton borough covered it, we would have to fund any replacement moving forward.

There is also some evidence of artificial surfaces causing extra injuries. The NFL play mostly on artificial pitches and the number of ACL injuries they get is scary. [iAs a 2019 study published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine points out, “playing on artificial turf increases the risk of lower body injury and that field surface has a causal effect on injury rates due to synthetic turf’s lack of ability to release an athlete’s shoe.” [/i

Rugby Union did some research a couple of years ago which found worrying trends.
rlhttps://www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/staggering-amount-of-injuries-on-4g-pitches-compared-to-grass-1.3641369%3fmode

Its not the direction i’d go in but the short term pound signs will be too much to resist i guess.