Olympia set the benchmark for Tasmanian football

Photos (Top to Bottom): One corner of the new ground; Looking along the length of the pitch; The club room on the western side of the pitch; The side-line nearest the club room; President George Mamacas is given a few tips about the steamroller by Wayne Barrett; Looking diagonally across the pitch; Olympia president George Mamacas with a sample of the artificial pitch; This is how the new surface will look and it can be seen in comparison to the old flat and smooth hockey surface; Two new training pitches will be built here; A new full-size grass pitch will be built here; One of the dressing rooms; The home-side's dressing room; Reserve coach Dallas Joiner and Olympia president George Mamacas inspect a dressing room; A new grass pitch for matches will be constructed on this area of the complex [PlessPix]

Olympia Warriors have almost completed their new state-of-the-art pitch and it will be ready for action in the 2011 season.

The club has a new headquarters at Bligh Street in Warrane and it features a building which will serve as a club house, complete with dressing rooms, referees’ room, canteen, a meeting room and board room, a storage room and gymnasium, an artificial pitch complete with floodlights, and a grass pitch and two grass training pitches at the rear.

The club has already invested $300,000 in the project and it will spend another $100,000 by the time things are up and running at the start of the 2011 season.

The club has a 20-year lease on the facilities, which used to be a hockey ground and was then leased by Clarence United, who were unable to utilise it for the past five years.

The playing surface is nothing like the surfaces at the Cornelian Bay Hockey Centre, which are flat and smooth and need to be watered so that players don’t suffer burns when they go to ground.

The surface at Bligh Street, which is about to be put down, is made of layers of material, including sand and recycled rubber tyres and micro-filament. The artificial grass, of course, needs no watering as players who fall down on it do not suffer burns.

The new pitch meets FIFA regulations and normal football boots rather than runners are required to play on it.

“We’re 80 per cent there,” said Olympia Warriors president, George Mamacas. “We hope to have the ground ready by November and the first ball should be kicked by December.

“This is definitely a benchmark for Tasmanian football.

“Obviously, we intend to play Premier League on this surface and the goal is to get every registered Olympia player, from the under-13s up, to play on it during the season.

“It’ll certainly be the end of postponed games because of poor ground conditions for the Olympia Warriors.”

Mamacas said the ground will also be available to others, but Olympia will have priority.

He said there will also be a corporate area in the building beside the ground where sponsors and other VIPs can be entertained and from where they can watch games.

“The lighting is very good, but we do have to make some adjustments because at present there are some shadows on the pitch,” Mamacas said. “We’ll get an expert in to adjust the lighting.

“Our playing surface simulates grass and doesn’t need watering. It can only be used with standard football boots. Runners will not be allowed on there.

“On the other side of the fence, council have pledged to us that they’re going to build another pitch and training facilities.

“The whole complex is Olympia Warriors’ for the long-term future and we’ve got a big capital investment in this and it should see us in good stead for the next 50-odd years.”

The pitch will be just over 100 metres in length and just over 60 metres in width, which makes it slightly bigger than Taroona’s ground.