Pitch Damaged After Concert: Pundit Michael Stewart has revealed his dismay at the condition of Hearts’ pitch after the club hosted an Edinburgh Festival concert a week ago today.
The damage appears to have been done when the stadium was the venue for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra on August 3. It saw a crowd of more than 15,000 arrive in Gorgie to witness the official opening of the world renowned arts festival.
Hearts laid the state-of-the-art hybrid pitch at a cost of £1m in March and Stewart took to Twitter to register his displeasure at it’s apparent poor health.
He said: “What a crying shame the Tynecastle park looks like this.
“Have spoken with the groundsmen and thankfully they seem to be comfortable that the park will recover and quickly. Fingers crossed.
“£1million spent last year on this park and it was tremendous. The groundsmen deserved huge credit and now it looks destroyed before the league campaign has even started here.”
Hearts released a statement on Tuesday after pictures emerged on social media showing the apparent extent of damage done to the pitch by the Festival event.
The statement said: “Prior to agreeing to host the concert, we took advice from a number of expert sources, including the companies involved in laying the pitch.
“Our pitch consultants, STRI Group, were contracted to advise and manage the pitch protection process on our behalf, working throughout with our own groundstaff.
“We have always known that the event would have an impact on the aesthetics of the pitch, however, there would be no impact on its playability.
“In short, there have been no unforeseen issues relating to the pitch and the first team will train on it, as usual, on Friday.”
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