A Midlands-based event management company has clinched a major deal to provide crowd management services to Wembley Stadium. Read more
A Midlands-based event management company has clinched a major deal to provide crowd management services to Wembley Stadium. Read more
The English Football Association showcased a revolutionary new LED advertising system developed by StairMedia at last weekend’s Emirates FA Cup Semi-Finals 2020 at Wembley Stadium. Read more
The FA has called on fans to continue to stay and play at home during the coronavirus pandemic, for the chance to see their skills played out at the home of football, Wembley Stadium connected by EE. Read more
UK people movement and analytics business, Movement Strategies, has joined forces with global consultancy GHD Group. Read more
UEFA has chosen the host venues for the three Champions League finals from 2021 and other European football competitions. Read more
Last weekend saw The Who bring the curtain down on a record summer of concerts hosted at Wembley Stadium connected by EE. Read more
An offer from US billionaire Shahid Khan to buy England’s Wembley Stadium has been withdrawn. Read more
Club Wembley has launched a brand-new exclusive experience at the home of English football. Read more
Tottenham Hotspur have been forced to move their Premier League match against Manchester City to Wembley amid ongoing delays to the completion of their new stadium. Read more
Delaware North UK has appointed Philip Farrington as Head of Safety for the company’s growing UK blue-chip portfolio of sports stadia and travel hospitality. Read more
Fulham FC owner Shahid Khan has made an offer to buy Wembley Stadium from the FA for £800 million. Read more
Wembley Stadium connected by EE has launched its new contactless ticketing innovation, which will transform the way that the fans can enter the stadium. Read more
Star Events’ VerTech Ultra™ stages for the Adele 25 tour are the first ever event industry design to win at the Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE) Structural Awards. Read more
Wembley Stadium connected by EE will become the first UK sports and entertainment stadium to offer contactless ticketing for fans. Read more
Visitors to England’s Wembley Stadium and St. George’s Park, the national football team’s training centre, will see a technology upgrade after the FA agreed a three-year partnership with LG Electronics. Read more
Star Events helped carry the Stone Roses’ perfect 90 minutes across Wembley Stadium as the band performed for a capacity crowd on Saturday. Read more
Wembley Stadium is now able to achieve optimum spring and summer grass growing conditions year-round, thanks to an innovative aeration and moisture control system.
Wembley’s hectic fixture and events schedule creates a unique set of issues for FA head of grounds and estates, Alan Ferguson.
The grass is often covered for events, effectively starving the plant of essential nutrients, sometimes giving the grounds team just three weeks to complete renovations and grow-in new turf to get the pitch match ready.
Whilst grow lights and Bernhard’s TurfBreeze fans play their part in this remarkable turnaround, the award winning groundsman believes Bernhard’s SubAir system to be the biggest contributing factor in promoting a healthier root zone and a stronger plant.
This enables the team to rapidly grow-in a new pitch, especially during the winter months.
Ferguson said:
My first time seeing surfaces that used SubAir Systems was at Augusta National Golf Course and New York Mets’ City Field.
I was impressed by the cleanliness of the root zone because there were no disorders or black layer in them. They had very little or no fungal activity, the oxygen levels were high and it seemed to be a whole new way to aerate the root zone without having to use a machine on the surface.
Without disrupting the surface we can deliver one of the most effective aeration programmes in the country because we’re not going to put machines on the pitch. I had a desire to keep a spring/summer feel to the root zone all year-round to help deal with the recovery from the intensity of the programme the pitch has to endure.
Now we have great growing conditions all year-round, we’ve essentially eliminated winter. We’re producing more grass now than we were in July and August, consequently we only use Spring and Summer products on the pitch because we don’t have the issues you’d associate with winter. We are effectively producing the pitch 100% artificially
We wanted to hold the root zone temperature at 16-17 Celsius, and by doing that we can germinate grass seed within 4 to 5 days compared to the normal 10-14 days, so that gives us quite an advantage in germination times.
The Sub Air System brings many benefits including the ability to control the temperature of the root zone. It allows users to easily manage water usage whilst controlling the water delivery to the root system. Excessive rainfall can also be dealt with by using the system to take the water down through the root zone 36x faster than any other method.
Being able to provide the optimum balance of oxygen and moisture to the root zone is integral when growing and maintaining world class playing surfaces such as Wembley. Ferguson’s initial desire to quickly grow-in a new pitch, even during the winter months, has been realised.
He explained:
We are here at the darkest, coldest time of the year from November to January and we have a standard of pitch that you would expect in July and August. It’s put us in such a different place, to the point that we’re considering taking on additional events, and we’re confident we can manage that now.
We had comments from CSKA Moscow before they played Tottenham in November saying they thought the pitch was as good as first day of season. We wouldn’t have been able to do that if we couldn’t manipulate and control the root zone, thanks to SubAir we now have optimal growing conditions year round.
@PanStadiaArena
The installation of eight TurfBreeze fans at Wembley has allowed FA Head of Grounds and Estates, Alan Ferguson, to seize control of the stadium’s micro-climate and reduce the risk of turf disease by almost 58%. Read more
The winning students of SALTEX 2016’s new College Cup Competition will be given an opportunity to be volunteer groundsmen for the 2017 FA Cup final pitch preparation at Wembley Stadium, the Institute of Groundsmanship (IOG) has revealed. Read more
The Rugby Football League (RFL) has confirmed that it will bid for England to host the Rugby League World Cup in 2021.