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LNER Community Stadium embrace GroundWOW

February 17, 2023/in News, Press Release/by Lizzie Johnston

LNER Community Stadium embrace GroundWOW: GroundWOW have delivered their latest signing to LNER Community Stadium in York. The onsite delivery and set up of the GroundWOW® SFX MAX™ is the start of an exciting revenue opportunity for York Stadium Management, with teams York City FC and York Knights RLFC reinventing their revenue model by converting […]

4turf® delivers a sustainable drought-tolerant sward

February 16, 2023/in News, Press Release/by Louise Challiss

4turf® delivers a sustainable drought-tolerant sward: Opened in late 2019, Stoneham Lane Football Complex comprises 64sq.Km of artificial and natural sports pitches – supporting grass roots football for players of all ages and abilities. Part of the FA’s Parklife Project, the maintenance of the Complex falls under the remit of Hampshire FA Facility Operations Manager […]

LNER Community Stadium embrace GroundWOW

February 17, 2023/in News, Press Release/by Lizzie Johnston

4turf® delivers a sustainable drought-tolerant sward

February 16, 2023/in News, Press Release/by Louise Challiss

Full Sized Blog Element (Big Preview Pic)

LNER Community Stadium embrace GroundWOW

February 17, 2023/in News, Press Release/by Lizzie Johnston

LNER Community Stadium embrace GroundWOW: GroundWOW have delivered their latest signing to LNER Community Stadium in York. The onsite delivery and set up of the GroundWOW® SFX MAX™ is the start of an exciting revenue opportunity for York Stadium Management, with teams York City FC and York Knights RLFC reinventing their revenue model by converting under-utilised ground into advertising inventory.

The GroundWOW team worked with York Stadium Management to train their grounds and operations team on the hardware and software, so that the stadium can make the most of the new technology and take full ownership of unlocking the value of their surfaces.

LNER Community Stadium embrace GroundWOW

Pete Kitchen, Stadium Manager at LNER Community Stadium said about the delivery and initial training session; “After a brief session inside while GroundWOW talked my team through the technology, we went pitch side to create the first autonomous prints ever seen at the LNER Community Stadium. The install crew oversaw the first one before my guys took over the controls to deliver their own….and they looked brilliant.”

He continued, “We first visited GroundWOW at their very cool HQ in Manchester and we were instantly sold on the technology. Taking delivery of our own system today is an exciting moment and really only the start of our partnership with them. My team were engaged from the first minute with the training and to be able to operate it themselves so quickly speaks volumes for how intuitive GroundWOW have made the user experience.”

About the possible revenue generating opportunities and creative capabilities, Kitchen said; “Our minds are already racing with the commercial possibilities that GroundWOW instantly opens up, especially so when you consider our dual mandate across rugby and football and our host venue status for major events beginning with Rugby League’s Summer Bash in May”.

GroundWOW’s Chief Commercial Officer, David Pritchard, said “The LNER Community stadium is an incredible venue and partnering there with the team from York Stadium Management is an amazing prospect. Not only is it the home stadium of York Knights and York City F.C, it is a community facility built on innovation and ambition, characteristics of our own DNA at GroundWOW. It’s a real thrill to see our technology deployed at such a modern, pristine venue and we are looking forward to working with such a forward-thinking team across different sports as they bring major commercial opportunities to life”.

GroundWOW unlocks the value in sports stadia by turning any surface into advertising real estate easily and quickly. The world’s first autonomous full colour stadium ground printer with integrated end-to-end inventory management software platform hosted in the cloud is bringing the whole sponsorship and advertising process in-house. As market leaders, GroundWOW help stadia and venues to monetise, unlock and maximise the value in surfaces by connecting brands to land with an affordable monthly subscription.

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4turf® delivers a sustainable drought-tolerant sward

February 16, 2023/in News, Press Release/by Louise Challiss

4turf® delivers a sustainable drought-tolerant sward: Opened in late 2019, Stoneham Lane Football Complex comprises 64sq.Km of artificial and natural sports pitches – supporting grass roots football for players of all ages and abilities.

Part of the FA’s Parklife Project, the maintenance of the Complex falls under the remit of Hampshire FA Facility Operations Manager Pete Hussey who, in conjunction with seed from DLF, keeps the five grass pitches fit for more than 425 matches per season.

4turf® delivers a sustainable drought-tolerant sward

Alongside the Stoneham Lane facility in Eastleigh, Pete also manages operations at the Winklebury Football Complex in Basingstoke and the Front Lawn Community Hub in Havant – all designed to support and fund grass roots sport within the local area. “I’ve been in this role for three and a half years, but have worked with DLF for 17 years, having used various seed formulations at my previous venue” explains Pete.

“When Stoneham was constructed, one of the major focuses was on drainage – giving us incredible infiltration rates in the region of 52mm per hour. However, the flip side of that is that we have no irrigation meaning that in the dry months, pitches struggle to retain moisture and thin out quickly.” Foreseeing the challenges that lay ahead, Pete spoke to his DLF Regional Technical Manager Ian Barnett to explore more drought-tolerant varieties – and just in time, before one of the most prolonged droughts experienced in the UK, in the summer of 2022!

“We opted to switch from the 100% diploid perennial ryegrass mix to Johnsons J 4Turf 50, sown in May 2022, and we couldn’t have been more impressed with the results.” J 4Turf 50 incorporates 4turf^® tetraploid perennial ryegrass, a larger seed with higher energy reserves to deliver deeper rooting, better establishing plants – including in cooler temperatures – with enhanced colour, disease resistance and drought tolerance. The 2023 formulation contains 50% 4turf^® tetraploid rye and 50% diploid perennial ryegrass.

“The J 4Turf 50 established well before the hot conditions arrived. We were limited on how much water we could get onto the pitches and were thinking we would need to do a lot of recovery work ahead of the new season, however after the rain returned, the pitches recovered amazingly! We didn’t need to do any additional overseeding or fertilising, we relied on mother nature and the seed to do what it promised it would, and it did exactly that.”

Pete continues, “As the season progressed, the J 4Turf 50 coped with the high wear, recovered fast and remained strong enough that we saw no disease activity at all last year. In fact the pitches looked so good, we were able to wait until after Christmas to put a feed down.” He adds, “This switch has given us everything we want in terms of performance, but more than that, has moved us towards a lower input sward which is more sustainable to manage.”

For the latest industry news visit turfmatters.co.uk/news

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Half Sized Blog Element (Single Author Style)

Half Sized Blog Element (Multi Author Style)

LNER Community Stadium embrace GroundWOW

4turf® delivers a sustainable drought-tolerant sward

LNER Community Stadium embrace GroundWOW

4turf® delivers a sustainable drought-tolerant sward

Full Sized Blog Element (Big Preview Pic)

LNER Community Stadium embrace GroundWOW

4turf® delivers a sustainable drought-tolerant sward

4turf® delivers a sustainable drought-tolerant sward: Opened in late 2019, Stoneham Lane Football Complex comprises 64sq.Km of artificial and natural sports pitches – supporting grass roots football for players of all ages and abilities.

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