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The Evolution Of Spurs

April 4, 2019/in Press Release, Sport/by Kate Pasque

The Evolution Of Spurs: After almost two seasons of calling Wembley home, Tottenham Hotspur will finally play their first official game at their new ground on Wednesday 3rd April, hosting Crystal Palace in the Premier League. The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is jam-packed with endless aesthetic pleasures, from the revolutionary to the retro. The picturesque exterior […]

Lead Success For SALTEX Exhibitors

April 4, 2019/in Events, News, Press Release/by Lucy Nicholls

Lead Success For SALTEX Exhibitors: Five months on from SALTEX 2018, exhibitors are continuing to report a high conversion rate from leads they generated at the NEC last year. SALTEX 2018 served up a show to remember at the NEC, Birmingham, with exhibitors hailing it as the most rewarding exhibition to date. Sales teams have […]

The Evolution Of Spurs

April 4, 2019/in Press Release, Sport/by Kate Pasque

Lead Success For SALTEX Exhibitors

April 4, 2019/in Events, News, Press Release/by Lucy Nicholls

Full Sized Blog Element (Big Preview Pic)

The Evolution Of Spurs

April 4, 2019/in Press Release, Sport/by Kate Pasque

The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is jam-packed with endless aesthetic pleasures, from the revolutionary to the retro. The picturesque exterior to the sweeping curves of the stands, the stadium is a spectacular addition to the country’s capital.

Planning permission was submitted in 2009 for the new stadium, but it wasn’t until 2015 that the various hurdles were cleared and construction could finally begin. The opening fixture may have been delayed, but it’s safe to say it’ll be worth the wait!

Well, where to begin?

Let’s start with the largest statistic, the capacity. It was originally proposed that the stadium would hold 58,000, but the capacity gradually increased as the plans evolved. The final capacity was confirmed last year as 62,062 – a considerable increase on White Hart Lane’s 36,284. The stadium will become the seventh biggest in the United Kingdom, and the second largest in the PremierLeague, behind Old Trafford.

Spurs fans will be able to watch their goal replays on the highest quality screens, the largest of any ground in Europe, which stretch to a dazzling 325 sqm. There are also 1,800 smaller high definition televisions around the interior.

Now onto the playing surface (not just one pitch, but two!). The stadium will be the first of its kind in the United Kingdom to have two pitches inside the same bowl. The retractable, natural turf surface splits into three pitch-long steel trays. When the trays slide together, the join is invisible and imperceptible to the players.

The trays, weighing more than 3,000 tonnes each, can be rolled under the new South Stand to reveal the artificial surface in a process taking about 25 minutes. When the natural turf pitch is not required, it will live under the South Stand, for up to 10 days thanks to LED lighting, unique cooling and irrigation systems.

Tottenham have agreed a 10-year partnership with the NFL, making the new stadium a dedicated home for the sport in the United Kingdom. Alongside this, Saracens Rugby Club have a five-year partnership with Tottenham to play their annual showpiece fixture at the new stadium.

So, when did Harrod Sport get involved?

Harrod Sport and Tottenham Hotspur have a 25-year strong relationship, and with the obstacles surrounding Football, American Football and Rugby all being played at the stadium, it was important for Harrod Sport’s involvement in the early stages. So just how much went on behind the scenes with the design of the second largest stadium in the Premier League?

In October 2017, Mark Smith, Design Manager at Harrod Sport and Sales Manager, John Robinson met with the design engineers, the principal pitch contractor and Tottenham Hotspur’s Head of Playing Surfaces. The physical workings of Spurs state of the art, retractable pitch were viewed and discussed. The challenges faced as a company were extensive. Football, Rugby and American Football, all on a 0.5m deep framework pitch consisting of thousands of tonnes of steel framework! A challenge that Harrod Sport were excited and honoured to take head-on and deliver.

Challenges faced and how we overcome them

The distance between the single tier and the goal line is just five metres – meaning fans will be closer to the action than at any other newly developed Premier League stadium. This resulted in the pitch having a dramatically angled run-off. Due to this, advice was needed on net support locations to meet Tottenham’s net requirements with bespoke runback depths. The sockets were set into the steel framework and the run-off required specialist net supports to fit. Because of the angled run off, bespoke PVC foam wedges were also designed for the rear of the warm-up goals to sit on to create a level surface.

The NFL posed differing problems at both ends of the pitch. One was designed around the centre rail that the natural turf pitch rolls out over. To overcome this, the NFL foundation was designed exactingly to fit underneath the central rail with a removable hinge assembly attaching to the bottom section of the upright. The other end of the pitch proved just as challenging as this time the socket foundations needed to be mounted to a single capping beam located directly in front of the hydraulically raised goal line runoff.

Special sockets were also manufactured for the rugby posts to fit into pre-formed sleeves under the artificial pitch. For the natural turf pitch, the rugby post foundation needed to be mounted directly to the large metal structure making up the pitch tray and required bolt-down hinge adaptors and specialist turf trays.

To date, Harrod Sport has supplied their unique Stadium Pro Football Goals, NFL Posts, Millennium Rugby Posts, Turf Trays, Crowd Protection Ball Stop Systems, NFL & Rugby Lifting Devices, Goal Post Storage Trolleys, NFL & Rugby Post Protectors, Corner Poles, and Bespoke PVC Foam Wedges.

The club have without a doubt created one of the finest stadiums in the world for spectators and visitors, and in turn delivered a major new landmark for Tottenham and London. The extraordinary design will reset parameters surrounding what is achievable with multi-sport venues. Harrod Sport are honoured to have been involved in this amazing project and look forward to the opening game with excitement and pride.

Did you know that Harrod Sport are the suppliers of the bespoke Stadium Pro Football Goals to prestigious stadiums across the world? Learn more about Harrod Sport here.

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Lead Success For SALTEX Exhibitors

April 4, 2019/in Events, News, Press Release/by Lucy Nicholls

Lead Success For SALTEX Exhibitors: Five months on from SALTEX 2018, exhibitors are continuing to report a high conversion rate from leads they generated at the NEC last year.

SALTEX 2018 served up a show to remember at the NEC, Birmingham, with exhibitors hailing it as the most rewarding exhibition to date. Sales teams have since been working on converting a high volume of leads into new customers and many companies have reported hugely successful results.

Net World Sports, a sporting equipment designer and manufacturer, made its first appearance at SALTEX 2018 and it was an excellent debut, according to specialist sales and development lead Robbie Hayter.

“SALTEX 2018 has been a phenomenal platform for us, so much so that we’ve already booked our stand for 2019 and have secured an even bigger space.

“At the show we unveiled our new FORZA Alu110 360° football goal wheels which attracted huge interest from football clubs. We have since sold a large number to Premier League and leading international clubs.

“SALTEX allowed for the introduction to many established pitch contractors and we are now working on one project which includes supplying FORZA Alu110 goals and two-tier shelters to Colliers Park, Wrexham (FAW National Training Centre) in collaboration with CLS Sport.

“We also had the opportunity to network with many top grounds people and have already supplied and installed indoor football protection netting for West Ham United FC’s indoor academy training centre – a lead that came from SALTEX.”

Net World Sports was not the only exhibitor to gain valuable connections with Premier League clubs at SALTEX 2018. Fivesquared, a brand of Earlsmere, is a vibration management provider, and director Jeremy Hoyle claims that the company has benefited from engaging with such a diverse audience.

“The quality of visitor seems to be better than ever and there was a great mix covering all avenues of grounds and sports turf. As a result of SALTEX we have picked up some fantastic work within the Premier League as well as from a large number of schools and colleges.”

Garden & Hire Spares has also reported an increase in sales since exhibiting at SALTEX 2018 according to sales and marketing director Malcom Mullender.

“We picked up a couple of major national accounts as a direct result of having a stand at SALTEX and have seen an increase in sales from a number of accounts. We have already committed to have the same stand at SALTEX 2019.”

Laurie Davies, director of SPA Power Machinery, revealed that the company is placing more orders with suppliers just to keep up with the demand for the products that were launched at SALTEX 2018.

“At SALTEX we launched our new range of Westermann weed and moss brushes which has been highly successful. We are now placing regular orders with the German suppliers and have received great feedback from customers who have purchased since the show.”

Overton UK increased its presence at SALTEX 2018 by taking three stands and that decision has already been justified according to director Guy Overton.

“SALTEX was an exceptionally busy and successful exhibition for Overton UK, especially for the Mean Green electric commercial mowers, which attracted new dealers and led to many demonstration enquiries. We also launched the new Overton battery powered vacuum litter collectors and as always, the NIMOS WeedRippers got a lot of attention.

“Since SALTEX we have also received a large number of orders for the electric mowers, litter vacuums and the WeedRippers.”

Commenting on the success of the SALTEX exhibitors, Charles Neale, event sales manager, said: “We understand that exhibitions are all about brand awareness and gaining a return on investment. Exhibiting at SALTEX provides the platform for success in all areas.

“It’s great to hear that over 90 per cent of our SALTEX 2018 exhibitors obtained new business at the show and re-bookings for SALTEX 2019 stands are already over 80 per cent.”

SALTEX 2019 takes place at the NEC, Birmingham on October 30 and 31.

For more information visit www.iogsaltex.com

Follow SALTEX on Twitter @IOG_SALTEX and Facebook – www.facebook.com/IOGSALTEX

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

Get all of the big headlines, pictures, opinions and videos on stories that matter to you.

You can also find us on Facebook for more of your must-see news, features, videos and pictures from Turf Matters.

Half Sized Blog Element (Single Author Style)

Half Sized Blog Element (Multi Author Style)

The Evolution Of Spurs

Lead Success For SALTEX Exhibitors

The Evolution Of Spurs

Lead Success For SALTEX Exhibitors

Full Sized Blog Element (Big Preview Pic)

The Evolution Of Spurs

Lead Success For SALTEX Exhibitors

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