PITCH LOOKING GREAT

Sat 4th Feb 2012

A week of hard work and a knack of second guessing the weather has left Carlisle United with an excellent playing surface ahead of the visit of Chesterfield this afternoon, and it's game on as the final preparations for kick off continue.

The cold spells from earlier in the week have been beaten, and a complete Geofleece covering last night did the trick to keep the Friday night dip in temperature at bay. No further complications are expected.

Media officer Andy Hall said: "We've spoken to the referee and he's happy, and it's now a case of getting the last bits and pieces done.

"We're all feeling quite pleased because this hasn't been easy, but Dave Mitchell and his team have played this part of the game just about right.

"One wrong decision with when to use the Geofleece this week would have seen us lose the game to the weather, but we're here now and we just hope everyone who can get to Brunton Park will be there this afternoon.

"Snow is forecast, but even we can't do anything about that. We're hearing that it will fall mainly on the high areas, and that's if it comes in at all. So, hopefully, that's the last of the worries out of the way and on we go."

Author: Carlisle Utd

A unique frost protecting pitch cover keeping professional sports fixtures playable even in severe frost conditions.

Geofleece is a removable frost barrier that protects the grass and prevents the ground from freezing.

Recommended for football, rugby, and all sports pitches as well as horse racing and even horticultural applications.

It ensures fixtures are played despite the weather.
It acts as an insulation layer. The unique honeycomb of soft fibres locks out the frost, traps the ground heat and allows air to flow.

Financial Benefits:
1. The Carbon Trust will give a 2-5 year interest free loan to any club to pay for the pitch cover and Cowens offer an application assistance service as part of the package. Clubs can order now before the frost and not have to pay for years.

2. The FA have introduced a requirement for all clubs to have a provision for frost protection. Geofleece protects against hard frosts, other covers only offer the mildest of frost protection.

3. The product was extensively tested last season and is good for at least -8 degrees C.

Remember how bad a frost there was last season. Games were cancelled and revenues lost. This does not need to be repeated this season!

The Financial Case Study:
The Geofleece justifies itself. Take Carlisle United's actual figures as an example of the loss of income if a match is postponed from Saturday to a midweek evening because of frost:
1. Average crowd reduction from Saturday to Tuesday is 1,900 which costs an income drop of £19k through the turnstiles.
2. Postponement also means lost hospitality income, sponsorship (many companies cannot do night matches), shop sales, programme sales but still incur payment of limited expenses (stewards, safety, bar staff etc) and potentially expenses for the away team if the postponement is made late (after they have commenced travel). This loss could be between £10k to £15k.

Total loss per game: £29 - 34k.

A typical Geofleece for an entire pitch costs well under that, so the entire cost is recouped from saving just one Saturday fixture. In terms of goodwill and keeping the TV companies, fans and sponsors happy, the benefit is priceless.

It could be your safest investment this year.

Geofleece, the new anti-frost pitch protection system from JMS Sport UK, was the subject of a lengthy article in a recent edition of The Cumberland News ......

Cumberland News Sings Praises of Geofleece

There aren't many rugby groundsmen this challenging winter who can claim not to have a single fixture postponed - but that is the case for Jason Booth, Head Groundsman at Headingley. To underline just what an achievement this is you have to take into account the fact that the ground at Headingley, from the middle of December, plays host to both Premier League Rugby teams, Leeds Carnegie and Leeds Rhinos.

Nothing exemplifies this more than the staging of the Premier League rugby union fixture between Leeds Carnegie and play-off contenders Wasps on Sunday February 28. Leeds were desperately trying to lift themselves off the bottom of the table and had begun to show signs of a revival. Wasps were without their players away on international duty and had already refused to play a match at Sale earlier in the season because they claimed that water on the pitch made it dangerous. Having seen the state of the other grounds around the country where matches were played on the previous day, Wasps must have expected Headingley to be a quagmire – especially as everyone knows that the Headingley pitch suffers from notoriously poor drainage.

However, eighteen months ago Jason invested in a new pitch protection system, Pitch Protector, marketed in the UK by experienced sports equipment suppliers JMS Sport UK, based in Keighley. Easily deployed using the minimum of manpower, Jason has had the system in place for most of these last few months. On the Friday before the match one and a half inches of rain fell on Headingley. Jason has never seen as much rain on the sheets.

Jason says:
"We took it off on match day for the Leeds Carnegie game against Wasps on February 28 and it only took us two and a half hours. Without it the game could not have taken place. The Pitch Protector system not only ensured that the game went ahead but the surface was comparatively firm and allowed the players to run and handle the ball with confidence".

And it certainly gave Leeds the confidence to produce a 26 – 10 victory and give them realistic hopes of Premiership survival.

From mid December Jason also had the task of providing Leeds Rhinos with a pitch for their fixtures in preparation for their World Club Challenge match against Melbourne Storm.

However, thanks to the Pitch Protector system and use of frost sheets, Jason can claim that Headingley is the only Rugby ground not to have lost any fixture in this period.

Another Yorkshire rugby club, Bradford Bulls also realised the worth of employing Pitch Protector to guarantee that their home games at Odsal went on as scheduled in February – particularly as important TV revenue was at stake.

Stadium Manager Ryan Duckett hired the system for the month and says:
"It has been excellent and certainly made sure we got our games against both Saints and Castleford on".

Adapted from the system used by The Dallas Cowboys and the New York Yankees in the USA, Yorkshire based JMS Sport UK have cleverly refined a way of covering the entire pitch from heavy rain that is both quick and easy to deploy and remove as well as requiring the minimum of manpower to do it.

The 250ft by 40ft covers are brought into the stadium on specially designed trolleys and positioned around the ground. An inflatable "sausage" is then primed and the covers are rolled into position on the pitch itself.

125ft long foam waterbooms are placed under the covers to control the flow of water off the covers and at Headingley 9 covers are used to cover the main pitch with additional smaller covers in the dead ball areas.

Whilst other clubs waited nervously to see just how their existing ground sheets would cope with severe frost in late January/early February, the directors and players at Carlisle Utd FC could prepare for their 4 games in 11 days safe in the knowledge that their Geofleece Pitch Protection system could cope with the adverse weather conditions that were forecast.  And, by playing regularly, it gave the players that all-important match sharpness to enable them to defeat the mighty Leeds Utd on February 9th to earn their place in a Wembley Cup Final!

The Geofleece Pitch Protection system, marketed by JMS Sport UK, is made here in the UK from recycled plastic.  It has been the subject of an independent trial at Wolverhampton Wanderers FC where it was proven to be able to keep out frost to minus 8 degrees. The special honeycomb of soft fibres locks out the frost, traps in the ground heat and allows air flow to ensure that revenue-generating fixtures are not postponed because of a heavy frost.

The Geofleece system can be deployed over the entire pitch by eight people in an hour.  Most grounds also have areas that are more vulnerable to frost than others – usually the shaded parts of the pitch.  The Geofleece Pitch Protection system can be used in these more vulnerable areas to complement any existing/traditional frost sheets.

Having to postpone a scheduled weekend fixture results in a serious loss of revenue.  The FA Cup match at St Mary’s between Southampton and Portsmouth was scheduled for terrestrial TV with a mid-day kick-off.  The fee from TV alone was £247,000!   With a postponement and a rescheduling for a week day they were unlikely to get that TV fee and the same attendance figures and other revenue streams would also have been severely diminished.

Carlisle Utd FC Director, John Nixon, said:

“The loss of a game, particularly a Saturday fixture, means a considerable loss of revenue, even at League 1 level.  We estimate it to be around £30,000.   We also have to then cope with the resulting fixture backlog issues it gives us later in the season. Cash flow streams are vitally important at all levels of football as wages and expenses need to be found regardless of  income issues . The investment we have made at Carlisle United FC in the “Geofleece” system will be recouped within this season and Geofleece will be available for use for many seasons to come, protecting games and regular cash flow”.

Further details from Michael Heal at The PR Solution:

Tel: 0775 157 1936

Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

www.jmssportuk.com

 19 February 2010