Councils like power, it's why Councillors end up in council and not in state and federal, while all levels love power the lowest ones don't know how to handle it properly.
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wonder if the council has looked at this? More wet weather venues needed.Quote:
Develop a Master Plan to guide development of Arthur Edden Oval as a football centre of excellence and venue for NPL competition games (including possible synthetic surface)
6 out of 12 NPL1 NSW clubs have synthetic pitches. I found that a little surprising.
I think it’d be a big step for a local team to be the first to take that plunge.
It’s been a while since I played on synthetic, so I’m not sure my personal experience is up to date with newest synthetic technologies.
My experience was a 30+ degree day down in Sydney. Field was watered and pretty slippery to begin with, then turned into a sauna and then any skin contact ensured some skin burns.
There were a few injury concerns a few years ago.
What’re the general feels from players about the Lake Macquarie synthetic pitches?
I copied this from another thread as it is more relevant here.
I agree with your overall point,but if NNSW wants better quality matchday facilities and council is wiling to help fund it then i can quite clearly see where the issue really is here.
Any club official that finds it too traumatic to deal with another club to get a benefit for both of them isnt fit to sit on a committee anyway.Each club can keep and upgrade their own training facilities, but the idea that we cant build a compliant venue to cater to 2 x matchdays per weekend is absurd and shortsighted.NL especially should be bending over backwards to get a deal done if it means they get into NPL because of it.
As much as we would all like to play on nice grass fields and train on something similar, the simple fact is that as the populations of Newcaslte and Lake Macquarie have grown, the development of more sporting fields to follow that population growth has not occurred.
In Sydney it is predicted that within 20 years the population will be such that the pressure on sports fileds will require mid week games and heavy use of fields. We are going down the same track here.
As councils have not created the required fields over the last decades and also failed to update the facilities they have over time (hence the mad rush now to renew sports fields everywhere) the short fall will become more pronounced.
Now add to this the fact that many of the sports fields are built on low lying ex swamps (think anything in the Lambton/New Lambton/Broadmeadow and Adamstown areas). Now add the booming number of kids playing the game.
The only viable answers are build more fields (which won't happen cause there aint no more land), or put in hard wearing all weather fields.
The surface is hot, burns skin when you slide and is expensive to replace. Still, I'd bet it is cheaper than obtaining the land and building new grounds.
the other option is to just have sporting complexes located outside metro areas
because it doesnt really matter if a sportsfield is flooded once every 5, 10 or 100 years
we have an enormous amount of land in the lower Hunter that's not suitable for most land uses due to flooding - we should be building sports fields in that land - I think the Sandgate/Hexham area would be perfect but there's plenty of others
if you put the facilities above flood level, then they can be insured and there's minimal risk
this planning isn't anything new and is happening all over the nation, one humorous example is the large population of migrants from India in north western Sydney has let to a huge lack of cricket fields
That ground will still be washed out for x rounds a year and mainly unplayable when on. Include training we miss hours/days of playing time each year.
Just put in more synth grounds. At least training stays on and some games get played. Then we can lose these stupid catch up weekends and play more rounds in the year.
I agree, surely synthetic is the future.
After being fortunate to travel to Portugal/Spain in 2019 where I witnessed almost 100% synthetic pitches, then seeing games played at Cromer Park on almost 100% synthetic, and then a club visit to Fraser Park on 100% synthetic.. I'm convinced.
The synthetic of today is a LONG way from the synthetic of my youth. If properly prepared it is no problem to play on. Granted, grass will always be better but the reality is upon us... Its either not raining and the tracks get run down through sheer volume of play, or it's rained (even a little bit) and they're out of play.
Something has to change.
but hang on they've been playing this game for over a century on grass... why is it all of a sudden a problem that needs to be addressed and not just worked around? it's just part of football surely. we reschedule and get on with it. sometimes fields get damaged and the quality of play drops but thats just another element of the game. it doesn't always have to be pretty to watch. doesn't it rain constantly in the UK? how do they manage it? synthetic pitches are expensive I'd rather see the money go elsewhere
It's always been a problem (or people didn't give a ****, I remember playing with the goal mouths under water, or large puddles across the field), the difference now though is that there is now a solution to the problem.
There are 2 issues with synthetic though, in Australia your feet feeling like they are burning when it is over 25 and sunny and apparently players are more prone to injuries and worse ones than on grass.
Interesting report from WA
"The use of a softer polyethylene based fibre and the ability of the surface to take a normal stud has resulted in it becoming an acceptable surface for sports such as soccer and rugby. The rubber infill, sometimes with a shock pad for added safety, have made third generation synthetic turf more acceptable for most of the sports where a player might occasionally slide, fall to the ground, or land from height. These third generation pitches are now becoming popular in Australia, and will increasingly be seen in the future being used for Australian Rules football and cricket (outfields), and for multi-sport usage."
From here: https://www.dlgsc.wa.gov.au/departme...f-study-report
Timely article:
https://footballnsw.com.au/2021/03/2...YrJG-h67rRNxP0
How does our synthetic field compare to the newer Sydney based fields in regards to the type of materials used?