Thursday, October 7, 2010

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.

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Div one teams will love playing there in 2012 haha

Anonymous said...

Walter, Before you start calling this a benchmark you should come up to the North West. Somerset have now got great facilities, Burnie, I hate to say it, but probably the best changing rooms, best lights and best grounds in the State, Devonport have been great for a long time and Ulverstone are finalising their set up with top notch facikities too. I think you meant the benchmark in Hobart (which to you lot down there means Tasmania I guess)

Anonymous said...

Onward and upward!

Congratualtions to George and his committee for their strategic thinking.

Not an olympia player or staff said...

wow, olympia defenately headed in the right track! with new signing and a new out look future looks bright for olympia. A team who just avoided relegation should be a real contender for the cup next year.

jerriy kruijver said...

fantastic.well done olympia.i wonder if money could be found to do the same on the pitches of kgv and south hobart

Anonymous said...

I think the benchmark is in reference to the artificial surface a surface which will be the first of its kind in Tasmania.

Anonymous said...

expensive to maintain and walter i am pretty sure you don't know too much about the hockey centre pitches and how they work...... do some research....... 400k is a very small amount compared to what the hockey centre has spent on surface.....

Anonymous said...

Any truth that Josh 'Fish' Fielding is going to Olympia in 2011.

Anonymous said...

Great news for football. There are not many pitches (south way) which are only used for Football only. Most have other sports mainly being Cricket played on them during the summer months. Having played back when the State league was around, I must admit that Devenports ground was always a favourite to play on. They had 2 or 3 pitches, great change rooms and a nice club house. I'm not too familar with the other newer facilites up north but theirs was good for the that time.
To me there aren't too many clubs in the south where you have all your facilites in the same area; Kingbrough, Uni, Clarence are the only ones I can think of.

And why wait to play Div one teams in 2012 when it can happen next year. Div 2 or Div3 could also play as there; as the article says, the ground will be available for hire!!
Might even see a touch rugby game!!

Well done Olympia. You are on the right path to having a brighter future.
Hopefully this will reflect to your 2011 season.

Good luck.
Tripod.

Anonymous said...

Fielding is gone from the knights thats for sure. from what i hear it is Olympia

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 9.29pm, we know about the hockey surface that wasn't flat and had to be replaced. I bet that cost a lot!

Anonymous said...

despite not being a fan of olympia, this is great news for football here

Anonymous said...

Anon 7/10 6.15
The benchmark comment was made by George Mamacas - who was quoted by Walter.
No club in any part of the state has an all-weather pitch - so there is certainly a benchmark being set.

Anonymous said...

Well done olympia

Anonymous said...

I hate Olympia but this is great for Tas Football. Well done

Anonymous said...

I played on an artificial ground in melbourne a couple of years ago, great for ball playing however DONT SLIDE TACKLE.. you do get carpet burn! and to make it worse the black rubber bits get stuck in the burns.. 5 or 6 players from our team had to use tweezers to pullthe rubber bits out after the game..

Anonymous said...

Anon 10:48, I have played on the pitches in Vic for Tas and when I lived over there and I agree, as wierd as this sounds they were actually very unpredictable as the ball would either skid-on or hold-up depending on how many rubber bits were on that area. And some of the burns experienced by the boys were pretty bad. However, this is no different to a normal ground, especially clare st, and I think it will be great for Tas football as Im sure many development squads etc will be lining up for training sessions as they often play on this stuff interstate.
As a keeper however, im not looking forward to playing on it, happy it's not my home ground!

Anonymous said...

I would be investing in a car alarm if you leave your car in Warrane Carpark.

Anonymous said...

Warrane Warriors

Anonymous said...

george and dallas are looking in good shape

Coxy said...

good on Olympia for going out there and treating a club down here more like a business and not as a social club

Anonymous said...

It's in warrane! I hope that the turf isn't flammable

Anonymous said...

This is going to be a very good set up, only thing is if they make the training pitches then there will be a lack of parks, the carpark there is pretty small, and even though i'm sure warrane is a nice place people would rather park in a carpark as opposed to a seedy side street. Perhaps instead of one of the training pitches use the space for more parks? wouldn't be an issue for not going to a game because i couldn't get a park