The Pitch

[UK Redsox]

Can you play FA matches on 4g?

VP has been 4g for years now.

Can barely send a text from inside Villa Park, let alone get a 4g signal

[darren woolley]

Didn't our head groundsman who won groundman of the year not's so long ago I read he went to work for PSG.

[Durham58]

I haven't been a fan of our perfect pitch of recent years. Maybe because I associate it  with the sterile sanitised experience of watching football in the 21st century.

I thought it was great to see it cut  up yesterday. It gave a nice retro feel to the game. It's how pitches should look in January in my opinion.

[Toronto Villa]

I haven't been a fan of our perfect pitch of recent years. Maybe because I associate it  with the sterile sanitised experience of watching football in the 21st century.

I thought it was great to see it cut  up yesterday. It gave a nice retro feel to the game. It's how pitches should look in January in my opinion.

LOL ok, strange one but each to their own. Do you miss open terraces, empty seats in various parts of the ground, empty beer containers, urine running down the steps and fencing too? I'm kidding of course.

The Villa Park pitch has stood now for the past few seasons as one of the few things we can be incredibly proud of. It has been a spectacular playing surface and I wish that had come up in the chat with Wyness the other night. It's in very poor shape right now and needs addressing.

[wittonwarrior]

Imagine if so called improvements were made to villa park and the corners were filled in - the pitch would end up potentially worse

[Chris Stares]

I have it on reasonably good authority that one of the big reasons the pitch has been so good in previous seasons, even during terrible weather conditions, is because of the special lights (UV?) to which they expose it along with the special plastic sheeting they put on it, which helps to promote grass growth and also dry it out.  However, running the lights for the durations needed (almost constantly in winter) to keep it in pristine condition apparently costs in excess of £2m a year, so the need to trim the cost has meant that they will be running the lights more sparingly with the corresponding degradation in the playing surface.  By all accounts, if we get promoted, it won't be an issue - we'll have the funds to go back to our previous practices, and the pitch will be maintained at billiard table levels.  If we don't then it could be we have to get used to seeing football played on a poorer surface.  I guess we've been spoiled over the years with the quality of the playing surface and, despite the victory yesterday, it saddened me a bit to see the state of the pitch as the game went on.  I also think the heaviness of the pitch as it cut up was a contributory factor in our players seeming to get a bit "leggy" in the final quarter of the game (although I guess it's the same for both sides, but maybe other teams are more used to playing on heavier surfaces?)

[Toronto Villa]

Imagine if so called improvements were made to villa park and the corners were filled in - the pitch would end up potentially worse

Why? There are stadiums where the corners are filled in and the pitches are just fine. Why does one thing directly affect the other?

[ChicagoLion]

Imagine if so called improvements were made to villa park and the corners were filled in - the pitch would end up potentially worse

Why? There are stadiums where the corners are filled in and the pitches are just fine. Why does one thing directly affect the other?

Lack of air movement has a negative impact, that is why the San Siro struggled for a long time, why some pitches are put on rollers and moved outside when not being used.
Technology has moved on but it is more difficult to maintain a pitch in a sealed ground.

[Toronto Villa]

Imagine if so called improvements were made to villa park and the corners were filled in - the pitch would end up potentially worse

Why? There are stadiums where the corners are filled in and the pitches are just fine. Why does one thing directly affect the other?

Lack of air movement has a negative impact, that is why the San Siro struggled for a long time, why some pitches are put on rollers and moved outside when not being used.
Technology has moved on but it is more difficult to maintain a pitch in a sealed ground.

The San Siro example is 30 years old. Camp Nou, Bernabéu, Allianz Arena, Emirates are all examples just off the top of my head where stadiums have excellent pitches combined with stadium designs we are discussing. Even Wembley one they figured that out is now a good playing surface.

[TopDeck113]

I always remember back in the day a mate's dad saying to us on the way back from a game that had been played on the patch of rolled mud that was the Villa Park pitch circa 1979, that the reason they had fish ponds and artificial lakes on the Aston Lower Grounds was because that's where all the local rainfall drained to.  The fact that you then put a football ground on the site doesn't alter that basic geography.  Fast forward forty years and, for sure, pitch technology, drainage and groundsmanship has moved on, but the ground is still at the bottom of a hill.

[villa `cross the mersey]

Another factor could be that when Ansells closed the water table in this part of Brum rose considerably - because the natural spring water was no longer been drawn upon - smaller brewing companies have drawn water intermittently but I daresay years of  dormancy and wetter winters have caused the water table to rise ever higher- just a possibility - perhaps the Dr could open up a Viila Brewery similar to Aston Manor ( previously owned by HDE) - producing " Albion Bitter" and "Small Heath Aleiance"

[London Villan]

It’s a symptom if falling out of the top tier. There will be plenty more things like this starting to heppen if we don’t go up this season. Training ground tech falling behind the top clubs, fewer new facilities in the ground, reduced maintenance, all that stuff... we need to go up.

[Comrade Blitz]

It's what happens when we let our best people be poached by the big clubs..

Like we needed another reason to hate those ******.

[leylandalbion]

They did the lights and canopy. Groundmsb tweeted about 2 weeks ago they were reseeding

[Louzie0]

Pics were on Twitter, it was dead exciting.