GAA has just three days to re-lay pitch

NEW CROKE PARK PLAYING SURFACE: GAVIN CUMMISKEYtalks to Croke Park stadium director Peter McKenna who will oversee a logistical nightmare of laying a new surface ahead of at least three major football games

THE ARRIVAL of U2 to Croke Park has put enormous strain on the stadium to be ready for the All-Ireland football quarter-finals over the August Bank Holiday weekend.

There is a three-day window to re-lay the pitch that was ripped up within an hour of the Leinster football final last Sunday. As far as deadlines go, it doesn’t get much tighter than this.

Early on Tuesday morning, July 28th, the U2 road show begins the 42 hour process of packing up its 11 storey, 550 tonne stage that will take up 40 per cent of the pitch surface.

It will be in place for 12 days with zero growth beneath it leaving no option but to replace the pitch.

From Wednesday morning until Friday afternoon Croke Park stadium director Peter McKenna will oversee the logistical nightmare of laying and priming the new surface ahead of at least three prime time football encounters (the fourth is likely to be postponed due to the Wexford v Roscommon qualifier replay).

It is not inconceivable that a stand alone Dublin fixture will take place in Croke Park over the Bank Holiday weekend.

This means a packed house and that means full scrutiny of the new surface.

Basically, a three-month process is occurring over 10 days. The pitch was going to be stripped next year anyway and a dry run of sorts occurred after the recent Take That concert when 20 per cent of the surface was torn up and replaced in eight days.

That process will now be multiplied by five times within a three- day turnaround.

“The grass will be rolled, marked and ready for play on Saturday the 1st,” said McKenna.

“Well, we are certainly pushing this process to its limits. It is logistically very, very tight. It is not the first time we have done this. After Take That we replaced 20 per cent of the pitch using the same process.

“We have had a number of games on it since and no one has noticed. It was important that no players complained. It was seamless and this process will be too.”

Dublin aside, the last eight of the football championship could be played in provincial grounds but the GAA management insisted all games take place in Croke Park as part of the 125th anniversary celebrations.

The hurling semi-finals follow over the following two weekends, so no pressure.

Silver lining? The cost of this process is €1.2 million with U2 contributing approximately 40 percent of this.

The motivation to achieve such an “enormous” task comes from the €2.75 million profit Croke Park will earn from the three gigs.

“In any of these things there are obviously concerns and risks,” McKenna conceded.

“The challenge for us is to manage ourselves. I’m confident we have covered the issues that will arise. We have already run a pilot programme and we learned a lot from it.

“We wouldn’t contemplate this unless we knew we were able to deliver. And I say that confidently but not with complacency. We are dealing with a natural product. It is taking us to the limit of our ability but I’m confidant we have the ability to do it.”

Logistically it is a difficult yet doable task.

From a playing perspective, concerns about the Croke Park pitch are sure to resurface.

Before they found a smooth surface that has earned plaudits from the international soccer and rugby fraternities since 2007, there was a concern about players slipping and the hardness of the pitch off the Jones’ Road.

“It will be a softer pitch,” McKenna explains.

“There will also be plenty of verti-draining and spiking.”

It will be rigorously inspected from August 1st right up until the arrival of the Springboks on November 28th.