WORK has started on relaying the Galpharm Stadium pitch.
It’s a month to the next fixture there – the Super League XIII rugby clash between Huddersfield Giants and Harlequins on Sunday, June 22 – so contractors are ripping up the old surface.
Stadium managing director Ralph Rimmer explained: “The process will take until next Monday and will include through-the-night work under floodlights.
“Once the surface is removed, top soil will be put in and then the pitch re-seeded. After that, it’s just feeding and watering, but the early intensive work is very important.”
Work at the Galpharm will be leisurely compared with that at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium, where the much criticised pitch was rapidly relayed for tonight’s Champions League final between Chelsea and Manchester United, which kicks off at 7.45 and is being screened live on ITV1 and Sky Sports.
The Galpharm pitch – which is partly synthetic – was widely criticised by fans during Huddersfield Town’s League I football campaign as being too hard and bare.
Plans are for the synthetic element (which has been in place since the stadium opened in 1994) to be completely replaced in 2011.
