Tractors and trailers are down at the John Smith’s Stadium in Huddersfield – as the annual pitch refurbishment gets underway.
Work to re-lay the pitch began just four days after Town’s last match of the season against Arsenal.
And the teams preparing the pitch for the coming 12 months have just a few weeks in which to complete their work.
Gareth Davies, managing director of Kirklees Stadium Development Ltd (KSDL), said: “The key element of the stadium is the pitch and because of the overlap of the football and rugby league seasons, we don’t have a single day when we have a ‘close’ season.”
The stadium is one of 16 Premier League venues – along with Wembley Stadium – to use Desso technology for its playing surface. The technology is a combination of natural grass and plastic strands designed to make the pitch more durable.
Mr Davies said the small percentage of plastic embedded in the pitch provided an anchor point for the grass root base to clinch onto.
“Because the grass roots have this anchor point, it causes a proliferation of root growth and that gives greater strength to the pitch,” he said.
“It’s not the scuffing and skid marks that cause wear and tear to the pitch,” he said. “Whenever there’s a tackle, it causes a shudder though the ground which snaps the roots. The Desso anchor points mean a far lower percentage of grass roots die.”
Work on the pitch began on Thursday – following the Arsenal match on Sunday, a Jo Cox Foundation charity match on Monday, a Heineken promotional day on Tuesday featuring a match between teams drawn from two breweries and a Giants promotional day on Wednesday when corporate sponsors got to train with the players.
Mr Davies said the work could be done now because the Giants do not have a home game until May 31.
“The work involves taking off the top layer of organic matter, leaving the Desso plastic in the ground,” he said. “Holes will be dug to aerate the mid-layer soil and then tons of sand and tons of soil mix will be laid and the pitch re-seeded.
“We have just enough time for the grass to grow sufficiently to play on. For the first Giants game, the pitch will look slightly yellow because the grass is just starting to grow.”
The stadium installed its first Desso pitch a few years after opening when it became clear that an all-natural grass pitch was taking too much punishment. The technology is designed to last 10 years, but the first pitch proved even more durable and did not have to be replaced until 2011.
