Industry News

Huddersfield Town invests £400,000 to improve pitch condition

A £400,000 investment has been made by Huddersfield Town to help with the condition of the pitch at the John Smith’s Stadium.

The English Championship football club’s owner Dean Hoyle has bought three additional lighting rigs in an attempt to improve the quality of the playing surface at the ground.

The artificial light helps with grass growth, as well as highlighting the field better.

The update will support ground staff in sustaining a pristine playing surface as Huddersfield moves into the back end of the season.

The club shares the ground with rugby league team the Huddersfield Giants. The new rugby league season began last month and this, coupled with varying weather conditions, has led to the deterioration of the pitch.

The three new lighting rigs have been added to the other three that the stadium company, KSDL, has been using throughout the season. Another two were bought earlier in the summer of 2016.

Huddersfield’s chief executive Julian Winter said: “We are doing everything we can to help keep up the quality of the pitch at the John Smith’s Stadium.

“Dean has invested £400,000 to help the club have the best possible end to the season and we know having a higher quality of playing surface will help (manager) David Wagner’s side as we near the end of what has been a very exciting season so far.

“The lighting rigs will help the pitch recover a lot quicker now that it’s is being used more regularly with the start of the rugby league season and will also help the groundsmen at the stadium deal with the varying weather conditions, in what is a particularly challenging time of year.

“The additional three lighting rigs means that the grounds men will be able to focus on larger percentages of the pitch and will help the condition of the grass as a whole.”
Huddersfield has enjoyed an impressive season so far and currently sits in third place in the Championship.