Meeting at CANDAC Penydarren Park at 7pm tomorrow (Thursday 19th)

Just a reminder for this important meeting tomorrow, where proposed plans for the development of Penydarren Park will be explained and discussed.

I hope to be there but, with another engagement due at 7.30pm in town, I may have to leave about 7.45 although it shouldn't be too much of a problem as I understand the meeting will probably last only an hour.

Tim Drummond wrote:I hope to be there but, with another engagement due at 7.30pm in town, I may have to leave about 7.45 although it shouldn't be too much of a problem as I understand the meeting will probably last only an hour.

Yip, you have to get in early to bag the best Big Issue pitch!

Nah, it's a Poems and Pints session at The Imperial and as one of my poems is about Merthyr Town FC, and when they played at Taff's Well, it's all relevant to the cause.
One of the Big Issue sellers in Merthyr comes from Newport!!

Merthyr Town’s £1.3m revamp
Merthyr Express

MERTHYR Town football fans will tonight have their first glimpse of ambitious new plans to redevelop Penydarren Park. The club is to embark on a refit costing an estimated £1.3m, the Express can reveal, and will include:

• Alterations to and the redevelopment of the stadium’s entrance, facilities and supporters terraces;
  
• The demolition of the derelict Strikers Bar situated to the south of the stadium;
  Construction of a new car park;
  
• Converting the ground’s current grass pitch into a 3G all-weather playing surface.
  

The redevelopment of the stadium is expected to come to an end by July 2015. By that time, Merthyr Town FC will have received more than £2.8m from various investors with the option of targeting other “funding streams”.

A feasibility report was compiled last month to review the continued use of the club with the view to “preserve and develop [its] semi-professional football team... thereby maintaining a tradition that goes back over 100 years”.

In addition to maintaining Penydarren Park for its football teams and its fixtures, the club also aims to continue providing facilities for the use of Merthyr Tydfil College, football coaching events during school holidays, charity fundraising matches, and, on occasion, other senior teams in the borough, who are without floodlights.

Steve Lloyd, Merthyr Town’s business development manager, said: “We are keen to expand and improve the current set up at Penydarren Park, which lead us to devising the feasibility study with plans to turn the whole ground into a community based facility. I see this being a two to four year project which will see the home of MTFC transformed into a community hub offering facilities for events such as weddings, live entertainment, conferencing. The introduction of these plans will underpin the vision of our community fan run club, of making Penydarren Park an all year round business and community venue that Merthyr Tydfil is crying out for. I feel not only that the people associated with the club but also the whole county borough and surrounding boroughs should have a very exciting future ahead by taking full advantage of the facilities being implemented.”

All members of the community including fans, members and sponsors of Merthyr Town Football Club are welcome to tonight’s event from 7pm at the Candac Suite. The study’s authors, Allan Stuckey and Dai Harrison, will also be in attendance along with a member of the Economic Development and Strategic Tourism team from Merthyr Tydfil Council.

3G FACTS

A 3RD GENERATION (3G) pitch is an artificial turf, which can be used in all weather conditions and is made of a long carpet filled with a combination of sand and rubber granules. To convert a grass pitch into a 3G playing surface at Penydarren Park could cost the club between £400,000 and £500,000 depending on the contractor.

But capital costs could see the club gain a large return in revenue of up to £150,000 annually for pitch hire and the use of other club facilities. Artificial turf was first used in Major League Baseball in the Houston Astrodome in 1966 and is common in American Football.

It was then trialled at various English football clubs – mostly in the 1980s – including Loftus Road, home to current Premiership team Queens Park Rangers. 3G pitches can be found at indoor academies, including Cardiff City’s House of Sport and the training facilities at the Ospreys.

An all-weather pitch was most recently installed at Abertillery Sports & Leisure Centre as part of developments worth £500,000 unveiled in May.

Here is an article about the 3g thing:

http://www.dgstandard.co.uk/dumfries-sport/other-sport-dumfries/2012/03/16/english-clubs-looking-north-at-3g-ruling-51311-30545737/

Anyhow, will be interested to learn how the meeting goes, cannot make it myself as I work evening shifts this week.

Should be a very intresting meeting, see you all there

Also on show tonight will be our proposed Merthyr v Atalanta 25 Year Supporters Shirt .

A very quick Internet search shows the following clubs presently have 3G pitches - Maidstone United, Sutton Coldfield Town, Durham City and TNS.

There may be more, but that's as far as I've looked.

By all accounts the technology of artificial pitches seems to have moved on a bit since the days of the rather notorioius ones at Queens Park Rangers and Preston North End.

Keynsham currently have a 3G pitch in the Toolstation div1 also

How did it go?!

Any news on how the meeting went ?

Great that PP is being redeveloped, the only thing that I am unsure of is the artificial so called 3G pitch; I have watched TNS a number of times on S4C, and the football looks terribly unnatural; the bounce and tackling are more reminisent of watching 5 a-side football than real football, and really not as enjoyable as watching the game on real grass; maybe we should go completly all American, and start calling the game soccer! Again would there be a demand for hiring the ground, when there is already an artificial playing surface available in Merthyr? All the other recomendations are great, but lets stick with Grass!

It was stressed that these are only plans at present.
I have seen football played on the artificial pitch at Cyfarthfa High School and it seemed to me that the game was very fast as the ball seems to gain momentum.
I did wonder if games could still be played at the Park while all these developments are carried out, if the scheme goes ahead. I suppose new dressing rooms would have to be built before the old ones were demolished.
I am not too keen on one idea of having the grandstand nearer the pitch.
A function hall (to replace Strikers) joined with the Candac Suite, so that there is no need for separate bar staffs, as suggested, could be useful.It would depend on what functions are likely as many local social clubs are struggling to get many folk to Saturday night "shows".
It would be an amenity for weddings and private parties.
It was good to see the large turn-out at the meeting, showing the continued interest of the fans and it is obvious that the Park is in need of a major overhaul if the club is to go forward.I did wonder if such a scheme would cost more than £1.3m but I am certainly no expert in this field.
The scheme seems to be a detailed one which will emphasise the community status of the club and hoperfully bring revenue to maintain Merthyr Town FC and perhaps even result in a step up the non-league ladder.

Martyr Weaver wrote: maybe we should go completely all American, and start calling the game soccer!

It seems to be something of an urban myth these days that 'soccer' is a fairly recent Americanism. I was an avid reader of the weekly magazine 'Soccer Star' in the 1960s, and that was first published back in 1952:

http://www.soccerbilia.co.uk/acatalog/Raich_Carter_s_Soccer_Star.html

The use of the word soccer as an alternative to football dates back to the 19th century. It's said to be derived from 'asSOCiation' football and and began to be used by public school and university types in the way that they called rugby football 'rugger'.

grass for me as well,unless you have a combi like the liberty where the rugby does not seem to ruin the surface.

I have an open mind about 3G. It should suit our play as we do try to pass and keep the ball down. It will be a much truer surface than what we have now - the bumps etc on the pitch last year didn't help our style of play. There will also be fewer postponements.

I'm sure we will make money with the hiring out of the pitch although maybe not at the level mentioned last night. Yes there are other artificial pitches in and around the borough but how many of them have the facilities off the field that we have now? They will be better in the future as well. What we need to remember is that we need revenue to keep the club going and to progress. Currently we attract fairly good sponsorship but the better the facilities the more we'll attract. Also there are quite a few fans who dip into their pockets regularly to help keep the club going, what with the weekly contributions to Salty's scheme, my attempts to flog shirts, Wingnut's great work with the club shop etc. The problem is we are always dipping into the same pockets and as times get harder we may not be able to do so for much longer so if we can build a self funding, sustainable club that will ease the pressure all round. Probably 3G is a small price to pay for that.

Have any one considered the fact that our floodlights will need replaceing in the not to distant future.I know the boys who attend the lights from time to time are concerned of the wear and tear they have been subjected to over the years.The bolts at the base are subjected to corrosion over time and it does not take much for them to shear off completely.It only take one bolt to shear to put extra preesure on the others.Perhaps we will not have a say iff we want a 3g pitch we might have to in order to accomodate new lights

I think the need for floodlights were mentioned in last night's meeting. We were aware of the limitations when extra lights had to be hired so that we could stage the FA Cup tie with Walsall with Sky TV coverage.
Just a point re the hope of fewer postponed matches- the problem is that in bad weather, when the stands and terraces, car park, are covered in snow, games could still be called off because of safety issues regardless of the pitch!

Tim Drummond wrote:I think the need for floodlights were mentioned in last night's meeting. We were aware of the limitations when extra lights had to be hired so that we could stage the FA Cup tie with Walsall with Sky TV coverage.
Just a point re the hope of fewer postponed matches- the problem is that in bad weather, when the stands and terraces, car park, are covered in snow, games could still be called off because of safety issues regardless of the pitch!

Agreed but I was thinking more of rain and frost. The part of the pitch in front of the stand regularly freezes up which has caused problems in the past and heavy rain should go straight through. Nothing can be done if it snows heavily either with grass or 3G but if that does happen it's likely the away side couldn't get here anyway. What I'm saying is that there is more chance of a game going ahead in the event of inclement weather.

Was talking with colleagues in work about 3g pitches (the conversation came about as I referred to the forum). Anyhow it seems that 3G is currently not the way forward for progressive clubs as they are not allowed in either the conference (apparently) or the FA CUP beyond the qualifying rounds.

See here:

http://nonleague.pitchero.com/news/fa-allow-3g-pitches-in-qualifying-rounds-14625/

On the other hand this could certainly be changed in the near future:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2102134/Plastic-pitches-return-club-chairmen-vote-yes.html

OS is quite right re the part of the pitch near the grandstand. It never seems to get any sun and has often been frozen solid in comparison to the rest of the ground.
I am not really sure about the number of clubs who would want to hire the ground when the Express referred to "other senior teams in the borough who are without floodlights." I don't really know who this refers to. And all small clubs are struggling financially, especially when the leagues introduce new rules, for example, for South Wales Amateur League grounds, there must be a separate toilet for the referee!
Troedyrhiw Fc have folded. The other clubs in the borough above Merthyr League level are, Treharris, Trelewis, Merthyr Saints and Penydarren and also, now, Aberfan SDC who start in the SWAL this coming season. They, fortunately, did well with their fund-raising rock concert at The Grove last Saturday.
It's a bit difficult imo to estimate how much money such a pitch could gain in revenue although obviously it has more prospects than the present grass pitch when over-use only brings problems.

As well as an artificial pitch being available for more use for playing and training on than the usual grass, I've a vague idea that when Preston had one they made much of the fact that it could be used for other purposes as well. E.g pop concerts, like the forthcoming one, or any other kind of outdoor activity could be staged there without fear of danger to the pitch, meaning it could be hired out for that kind of thing as well.

I wasn't at the meeting, so I don't know whether that was mentioned or not?

Good point. Not sure if it was mentioned but I had to leave at 8pm for another function.

More on 3g here on wikipedia. This time it is the Maidstone experience.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallagher_Stadium

and Durham:

http://www.twohundredpercent.net/?p=1897