As the various speakers at ESSMA’s Pitch Management Workshop offered many insights and new ideas for maintaining and exploiting (stadium) fields, there was a general consensus that achieving a perfect pitch is only possible when the stadium or venue management works closely together with the grounds team.
The European Stadium & Safety Management Association hosted its two-day event at the Juventus FC stadium and training grounds in Turin, Italy. Speakers covered topics ranging from European legislation and new developments regarding synthetic turf, to grass grow lighting, pitch covering systems and the latest developments regarding hybrid surfaces.
The speaker line-up included the CEO of the Strawberry Arena in Sweden, a representative of UEFA, Oliver Grice-Hewitt (winner of the 2022 International Impact Award of the Grounds Management Association (GMA)) and Franceso Gianello and Mattia Sara, both responsible for all fields at Juventus FC.
Still necessary
The presentation by the CEO of the Strawberry Arena perhaps best showed the importance of the workshop. While the venue was the national stadium of Sweden, CEO Fredrik Cornell did not shy away from the fact that a two-day concert by Taylor Swift would generate him more revenue than the annual fee paid by the national and local football team collectively, if money would have been his sole motivator.
Nevertheless, he named the quality of the pitch as the first and foremost pillar upon which the stadium has built a business case. Cornell went to great length to explain how much effort and energy is being put into the pitch by his grounds team, and how they have managed to reduce the number of relays (14 in 2014) to only three per season last year by investing in smart technology.
Oliver Grice-Hewitt, groundsman at Udinese FC, also addressed the amount of effort it takes to keep fields in optimum condition.
However, while he had been appointed two years ago to improve the pitch and to establish a grounds team, he still has to put in a lot of time and effort to receive support and buy-in from club management. This, despite having managed to achieve significant and measurable improvements.
That is why he listed “communication” as one of the eight most important aspects for a grounds manager.
Seeing is believing
The workshop also included a tour through the stadium and the Juventus FC main training complex. This offered delegates, representing several football federations, leagues and clubs from various European countries, a rare opportunity to see why UEFA has included Juventus FC in its “Best practice guide to training centre construction and management.”
Juventus FC has two training centres, one of which is exclusively for the main team. Collectively, the club has 14 training pitches and the main stadium.
While the stadium has specifically been built to accommodate Juventus FC, it will soon host its first rugby match in November this year. The grounds team will have two weeks prior to the game, as well as two weeks after, to prepare the grass for the rugby and football matches respectively.
Good networking opportunities
Clever planning of the various time slots and tours allowed ample time for delegates to network and to exchange additional ideas.
The next ESSMA event will be its annual summit, which will be hosted in November at the Estadio Civitas Metropolitano, home to Atletico Madrid.
Presentations of the workshop can be downloaded from the member section of the ESSMA website.
Read more about the ESSMA Pitch Management Workshop in the upcoming Grass/Hybrid turf issue of Sportsfields.Magazine. Are you not a subscriber yet? Please do so here.