Football Pitch Usage management

Usage management is an essential yet often neglected part of the pitch maintenance process.

A natural turf football pitch, if wanting to provide a suitable level of quality throughout the entire playing season, will need to have usage carefully managed. This means a club will need to have an understanding of a pitch’s carrying capacity along with the desired quality to be maintained.

Many soil-based pitches might have a carrying capacity of 2 or 3 (adult / senior) games per week, on average, where a basic to reasonable, but not high, standard of pitch surface is aiming to be achieved. However, what this means is that over the entire playing season a total of 70 to 105 games might be expected if the quality is not to be reduced significantly. It doesn’t mean that every week 2 or 3 games will be able to be played, because ground conditions may or will be unsuitable at times.

Whilst play could clearly take place during almost any ground condition, the damage caused would be out of proportion to what was gained, and significant deterioration can and will result. For some weeks only 1 or nil games might be appropriate, whilst at others 5 or 6 (especially during August and September when growth is strong) could be accommodated, but this amount may not be needed. It is the seasonal amount averaged out which often causes confusion about what is meant by carrying capacity.

If an excessive number of games take place, without playability and usage management being determined by prevailing ground conditions, then the pitch standard will deteriorate significantly. This typically happens during the latter part of the season, particularly after the Christmas and New Year break, resulting in a more heavily worn surface for the remainder of the season, and not achieving user expectations.

A frost in the surface layer of a pitch, typically even to just 13mm depth, can cause damage and shearing of the roots from the unfrozen underlying soil if play is allowed to go ahead in these conditions.

Having a match cancellation policy (probably better called a pitch management policy as the word cancellation often projects a negative value), agreed by club management, can help to protect pitch quality so that a consistent standard of surface can be played on throughout the entire season, not just the early part. This is not always popular when games do need to be cancelled or postponed, but this is often the trade-off which needs to be made if quality is to be consistently provided and excessive repair and renovation costs are not to be incurred.

One approach that can be undertaken and is easily understood by users, and which is especially useful for lower league games, is that of using a threshold for rainfall in the preceding a match for 24-hours and 72-hours. A soil will only be able to accept and process water at a certain rate. This is dependent on pitch construction, soil type and the prevailing drainage characteristics, especially regards the extent of compaction within a soil. As an example, it might be that a particular pitch has a threshold of 6mm in the past 24-hours and 15mm in the past 72-hours. If rainfall is greater than this then satisfactory drainage will not have taken place and the pitch would be classed as unplayable. One significant benefit of this approach is that of saving players unnecessary travel to and form a site as they have been informed beforehand, often by the club manager / coach or secretary.

Ideally, pitch rotation might be able to take place, allowing some pitches to rest in between games, although this won’t always be possible where pitches are in limited supply. Alternatively, some pitches might be better draining than others and these might be the ones which are more commonly used during periods of higher rainfall.

Inappropriate training on selected areas of a pitch can serious affect overall pitch quality and carrying capacity, so it is essential that training use is adequately highlighted within any pitch management policy.