Photos (Top to Bottom): Olympia's new ground at Warrane with an artificial pitch; Olympia Warriors' president George Mamacas has quashed rumours of trouble at the ground [PlessPix]
Olympia Warriors president George Mamacas has quashed persistent rumours that his club’s new artificial pitch at Warrane has struck trouble and will not be completed in time for the 2011 Premier League season.
Speaking today from the US, Mamacas said:
“The ground’s progress has been good up until the bad weather in Hobart the last few weeks.
“This has caused delays, but certainly will not delay the Olympia FC Warriors’ Premier League first rostered fixture on the 12th of March, 2011, versus New Town Eagles at 2:30pm.
“The contractors have gone home for Christmas and New Year and will return in the second week in January to complete the project.
“The ground has specific needs when building and laying. In the first stage, the base has to be built. This was done and achieved high praise from the contractors.
“In the second stage, the carpet has to be laid and glued. This process was weather dependent and could not be done in the rain. Fortunately, there were enough dry days to complete it.
“The third stage is now where we sit, with about 55 per cent of the work completed.
“This stage is also very weather dependent. The carpet is being filled with sand and tiny rubber balls. In order for this to be done properly, dry carpet is required so that the sand can be compacted down into the carpet.
“This process cannot be done in the rain or wind as it blows the sand and balls around and also the rain impedes on the process by making everything wet and sticky, therefore not allowing the sand and balls to drop and settle to the bottom of the carpet.
“The only local people who have worked on the carpet side of it have been a few of our players, who saw an opportunity to not only help out our club, but to earn a few dollars during their school holidays.
“There is only a week’s work left to complete the job.
“As far the size of the ground is concerned, the speculation that it is below minimum standards is pure crap.
“The very first discussion I had with FFT was about what size do we need to build to play Premier League. I may be dumb, but perhaps not that dumb! I suspect, as always, there will be a few jealous people out there who would dearly love to see this fail.
“Warrior Park will be completed by the end of January. It will be of Premier League standard and the public at large will benefit from our work.”
Well, that’s it, straight from the horse’s mouth.
Mamacas will be back on deck in Tasmania on 17 January.
13 comments:
All true. George gets it right again. Hope you have a safe holiday in Vagas George and arrive reinvigorated to lead the Club in what builds as an exciting 2011. 20+ training last couple of weeks and a couple of quality new faces seen regularly with last year's group. Can't wait ...
worth noting the photo show is pre the laying of the "carpet"
I have just been over to have a look at Warrior Park. It is going to be a tremendous asset to football in the State. Congratulations to George and his committee on their hard work, investment and foresight in our game. The facility is a credit to Olympia Warriors. We look forward to doing battle there this season.
Congratulations
Victoria Woods
President SHFC
Did Clarence United sell this ground to Olympia? As they used to own it I believe.
Hopefully they get the surface right, as it's rock hard in the photo above, and from experience running on it in that state. Obviously it won't be like that in the end, but just saying it's a very hard base to be working from!
It's definitely not able to have a full width pitch on it with the changerooms in their location, but it's not like most grounds (ie. Lightwood Park) are full size anyway..
I actually drove past the ground today and saw Ken Morton having a look at the ground
I thought this was a great idea at first, but surely if a player slides or falls on this they are going to be some serious turf burn. Do we know roughly how hard the surface is going to be?
The surface will be very good they played the recent u/19 world cup on it.
Some people should look up about the surfaces before they make silly comments.
The surface in the photo is not how it is now. The new carpet has 100 tonne of sand and 90 tonne of rubber between the players and the previous base. This method is well implemented in other countries and has been a success.
There are heaps of photos on Olympia's website which you can get to via fft's links or by googling the Clubs name.
The ground will be fine, the only downside is carpet burn and the bounce of the ball apart from that it wil be great, there are 100s of these grounds around aus so it will be great for tas
carptet burn = urban myth
If the surface is similar to the 3G surfaces that are everywhere here in London then it will be fine. I started playing on it about 6 months ago and I must admit I was a sceptic. However I have found the surface good. You are able to play in your normal moulded boots very comfortably. The bounce does take a bit of getting used to, especially if its wet. But the carpet burn is a massive myth. I think everyone will be rather surprised at how well the new surface will play. Lets hope investment like this continues through out the state.
Carpet burn does happen on the surface so no myth but its great to play on especially for teams who pass the ball well
I was hoping that the first game would be vs Clarence, the two eastern shore teams going head to head in the league opener under lights, that would have been sweet. I hope they make a cup like the eastern shore cup or something for when they play off this year, i reckon it would be good, just some extra incentive for both clubs to win :)
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