Caley Thistle pitch work rules out friendlies
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CALEY Thistle fans may have to wait until the season starts before they get chance to watch any summer signings play at Tulloch Caledonian Stadium due to much-needed pitch maintenance.
Between £60,000 and £80,000 is being invested in improving the surface and drainage system to reduce the chances of games being called off.
Three games were postponed last term due to a waterlogged pitch, including a televised Scottish Cup quarter-final against Celtic which cost the club up to £100,000 in lost revenue.
The work means that the club is unlikely to host pre-season friendlies before the next campaign kicks-off in July.
“This year the window for our maintenance programme is extremely short due to the introduction of the early start to the playing programme for the SPL season,” explained Caley Thistle’s operations director Kenny Cameron.
“But we are confident our park will be back to pristine condition by mid-July and ready for another season of top flight football action in Inverness.”
This week additional drainage trenches are being dug in the pitch, which won groundsman Tommy Cumming awards last year.
“This is never an easy task — given we have to pick our way between the undersoil heating pipes — but we are very pleased with progress to date,” Cameron continued.
“Our sub-contractor Greentech will then hollow core the pitch prior to scarifying the surface in two directions and re-seeding ready for the coming season.
“We have had very few games cancelled during the past 15 years and this season every team in Scotland has suffered to varying degrees with flooding, heavy snow and burst pipes so in reality we have not been as badly affected as some.”
Last month Inverness chairman George Fraser vowed to investigate the matter. He has discussed the problem with rival clubs who have experienced similar pitch setbacks, as well as Scottish Premier League officials.
“One of the problems we have had — which is throughout Scottish football just now because you will see it at St Johnstone, Motherwell and Aberdeen — is that with the heating pipes you can’t spike the park as deeply as you would like to because they are only 10 inches below the surface and there is a danger of puncturing them,” he explained.
“Ultimately over the next few years we will possibly need to look at re-laying the complete surface above the heating pipes.
“If we were going to relay the pitch in it’s entirety, which would mean digging up the heating pipes as well, it would be somewhere in the region of £250,000 which obviously we are not going to do.
“But our outlay this year will be probably twice as much as it would be normally.”
More work is scheduled for September but is it unlikely to disrupt the season.
Annual maintenance and inspections of the pitch are carried out but wear and tear has caught up with it.
“Every pitch has it’s life span,” Fraser added. “We have the subcontractor in now doing work on the park and because it will take slightly longer this year than normal and with the season starting a week earlier, we will have to wait and see what the growing season is like so that the park is in the best condition for kicking off on 23rd July.
“It is highly unlikely there will be any home friendlies to give the pitch the best chance for the season ahead.”
Last season the club hosted Spaniards Real Valladolid and Belgian side Royal Antwerp before kicking off their SPL campaign at home to Celtic.
* Caley Thistle’s confirmed pre-season friendlies (all away): 27th June — Clach; 12th July — Yeovil Town; 14th July — Bristol Rovers.
* Former Caley Thistle defender Stuart Golabek has joined Highland League side Brora Rangers. He was released by Inverness at the end of the season.
