| Arsenal leading light |
| Article Arsenal.com ©, 21st October 2005 |
The Arsenal team have become accustomed to playing home matches on one of the finest, if not the finest, pitches in the country.
So the Club are determined that although the bricks and mortar of Highbury will have to be left behind next season, the quality of the pitch will be maintained at Emirates Stadium.
To that end, the Club have invested in a revolutionary set of lights - 600 in all, which cover just over half of the playing surface and can provide the benefits of sunlight - 24 hours a day.
Head Groundsman of Highbury, Paul Burgess, who at half-time today will be presented with the highest accolade in the industry, the IOG (Institute of Groundsmanship) Groundsman of the Year award, has been researching the technology over the past three or four years. He has been very impressed with the results at PSV Eindhoven, where they were used last season, and last month ten portable units, each consisting of 60 bulbs, were delivered to Highbury.
The lights, developed by Dutchman Nico van Vuuren's company SGL (Stadium Grow Lighting), were first rolled onto the Highbury pitch straight after the Birmingham game.
The matchday programme caught up with Paul who explained how the lights work.
First of all Paul, explain what the lights are.
We have got ten units, and nine units cover half the pitch. One unit is therefore spare which we use to cover either the other penalty box or a specific area that needs covering. The idea of them is that during the winter months when the light levels are poor, they make the days longer, increase light levels, and to an extent, air temperature as well.
Why do we need them?
The main reason we have invested in them is because the environment for growing grass at the new stadium is not quite as good as it is at Highbury, basically because of the shape of the stadium. We are aiming for the standard at Emirates Stadium to be better than that at Highbury, so we need the lights to do that. We decided to buy them now to give us a year's experience of using them.
How long are they left on for?
In the first two weeks in October, we will have them on for seven hours a day, and in the second two weeks they will be on for 14 hours a day. Then for the next three months, they will be on virtually 24 hours a day. We will reduce the usage after January until March, then for the last two months of the season we don't need them because the sunlight is good enough.
We will usually take the lights completely off the pitch about a day before each match, in order to make the final preparations. After a match, we will roll them straight back on, which will allow immediate recovery.
Do the lights just replicate sunlight then?
Sunlight is made up of different rays, but the grass only responds to certain parts of the sun, and the special bulbs we use have that. It's the same technology you get in industrial greenhouses for growing roses and so on. The technology is already proven, but nobody has taken it from a greenhouse to a football pitch before.
How did the technology develop?
Nico [van Vuuren] is a big football fan and he grows thousands of roses in huge, huge greenhouses. He has got these lights in the top of the greenhouses and he noticed that in the winter, the part of the lawn that backed on to the greenhouse was really nice and green, and the rest wasn't. Then he thought to himself, maybe this can be useful in football. Three years ago, myself, Steve Braddock (Head Groundsman at Arsenal Training Ground) and my assistant Paul Ashcroft went to Holland and looked at the lights in their very early days, and it's developed from there to what we have now.
So is this an experiment, or do we know if it will work for sure?
The experiments have been done. Nico tested the lights at Sunderland's Stadium of Light, one of the most difficult growing environments around. He proved that you can have a summer-quality of pitch in the winter. I went up to have a look with Steve and Paul and it was just absolutely amazing. You would have to wear different football boots if you were playing on the treated turf to the untreated turf. It was incredible.
Since then, Nico has developed it into a bigger frame, and took it to PSV Eindhoven who used to re-turf their pitch every winter. The lights worked and they didn't have to re-turf their pitch for the first time in years.
Nico came over when the lights were delivered to us, and he is always on hand as our consultant. He's interested in it too of course. Nobody has ever tried growing grass 24 hours a day so nobody knows what the optimum amount of sunlight is yet.
What differences will the fans notice?
Well probably the first things you will see are actually negatives! We'll do our best to remove them, but there will be some wheel marks on the pitch. The lights are quite heavy and obviously they get wheeled into position, in the first couple of weeks looking at the pitch from the upper tiers it looked like we had just had a Formula One Grand Prix out there! But really that is superficial. Long term you should notice the difference in comparison with other pitches. As I said, ours should be pretty much a summer quality pitch all year round. The Clock End goal area starts to wear usually in December, so if that doesn't wear this year then we know it's starting to work.
What alternatives were there for the New Stadium?
The technology at the new stadium means that we will always have a flat pitch regardless of the grass, because there is plastic injected into it which makes up three per cent of the surface and that will keep the pitch flat and stable. The root-zone is 97 per cent sand, and three per cent organic matter, so there is very little soil. At Highbury the ratio is 70 per cent sand.
It means it will drain faster so it greatly reduces the chances of having a game called off for a water-logged pitch. Where the lights come in is to help grow the grass - without the lights we would have lost a higher percentage of grass cover, there's no doubt about that.
To be honest there are no alternatives, we need the lights so we are lucky that Nico has gone to such lengths to develop the technology because without it people start talking about artificial pitches.
Finally Paul, tell us about the award you have just received from the Institute of Groundsmanship.
Well, I qualified for the award by winning the Barclays Premiership Groundsman of the year last season, as the IOG award is contested between the four winners from each English division.
Whereas the Premiership award is essentially for the best pitch, the IOG award is judged on the actual groundsman. So they came to interview me about my management style, budget, responsibilities and so on.
They look at the fundamental things, like the maintenance of the equipment, marking out the pitch - they all add up. I must say, I have good working relationships with Arsene Wenger and our Board of Directors, I think that plays a big part as well.
The IOG award is the biggest, most prestigious award I can get and I am really proud of it to be honest, it's overwhelming. I'm 27 years old and I'm the youngest ever winner. Looking at the names that have won it before makes me very proud. Steve Braddock, who took me on nine years ago, has won it, so it really makes me feel like I have repaid the faith he has shown in me. Steve is an absolute legend, so if I can go anywhere nearing his achievements then I'll be very happy.