The New Raith Rovers Thread

[Hank Scorpio]

Going to be a lot of chat about pitches coming up so just to clarify for everyone before it gets out of hand - there is only 3G, and varying generations of 3G.
 

4G, 5G, 6G is not used in sport. 

[stevoraith]

On 05/12/2023 at 12:46, HIT THE CHANNEL said:

 

This seems to have went under the radar a touch. I think it seems like a disaster for us if the Premiership is our ambition soon (which it is and should be). 

The pitch is crucial to our 'community club' model, connecting hundreds of families and young kids to the club in the most clear and powerful fashion: getting them coming down to the stadium regularly and having the (amazing!)  experience of being on the pitch in a real stadium. It also make Starks the hub for the Rovers, from first team training to all the community activities.

In addition, not only would we need to now train elsewhere (back to the Michael Woods?) with all the costs that would bring, we would have the expensive reintroduction and upkeep of a grass park - and it will be shite for a majority of months (because its Scotland and we won't throw daft money at it!) making the football  worse and bringing postponements more often. 

Ideally there would be a rule about 'elite' non-grass parks being allowed. But I doubt that as the big clubs in the top flight want grass in all games, and do not care if it will impact our entire model.  

Perhaps I am over reacting here but to me this is big, big problem for the medium/long term strategy and seems like a fucker for the (vital) strategies we have of connecting with the town and growing the support back up again. 

Worth re-igniting this discussion I think (after getting sidetracked by the sectarian nonsense). 
 

I think this post is absolutely spot-on. The whole strategy of the club is built around community involvement and being able to use the pitch for as many revenue-generating hours as possible (and expense-saving hours for training). 
 

It would be as big a disaster for the direction of our club as having to build 2 massive stands was in the 90s. 
 

It’s a shame that our pitch, which is generally considered excellent, is tarred with the same brush as the cheaper options laid elsewhere. 

[RaithRovers1883]

I don't wish to be defeatist on a currently hypothetical situation, but say we were promoted and required to install a grass pitch, then were relegated back to the Championship, that could significantly financially harm us in the short and medium term for one season in the Premiership.

[bobbykdy]

1 hour ago, RaithRovers1883 said:

I don't wish to be defeatist on a currently hypothetical situation, but say we were promoted and required to install a grass pitch, then were relegated back to the Championship, that could significantly financially harm us in the short and medium term for one season in the Premiership.

It is not defeatist, it is a perfectly valid point to raise and one I am sure the board will be giving more and more thought to if we continue to keep pace with Dundee United.

[Rael Rover]

1 hour ago, RaithRovers1883 said:

I don't wish to be defeatist on a currently hypothetical situation, but say we were promoted and required to install a grass pitch, then were relegated back to the Championship, that could significantly financially harm us in the short and medium term for one season in the Premiership.

Also if denied promotion due to an artificial pitch you will loose players who want to play at the higher level.

[TxRover]

2 hours ago, bobbykdy said:

It is not defeatist, it is a perfectly valid point to raise and one I am sure the board will be giving more and more thought to if we continue to keep pace with Dundee United.

2 hours ago, Rael Rover said:

Also if denied promotion due to an artificial pitch you will loose players who want to play at the higher level.

There was already some mention of a transition period, as it isn’t realistic to expect a team to be able to convert a pitch to grass on short notice. I would expect the requirement would be phased in, if it ever happened. To be honest, I’d expect the proposal to fail.

[MICMAC]

I remember ourselves and that lot along the road constantly finishing behind Falkirk because we'd both invested x amount of £millions building a 10,000 seater stadium fit enough for the Premier League, whilst Falkirk spent their money on big named players and had no intention of ever investing in the shit hole that was Brockville. Even when the did sell Brockville they kept spending the money on players and not a stadium. They had decent team but were stopping anybody else from being promoted. It really ripped my knitting back then and it's one of the reasons I can't stand the fkrs

Edited December 7, 2023 by MICMAC

[Langtounlaud]

Is the pitch not due for renewal soon? Hopefully the board has money ringfenced for it. Don't want it to end up like Livi's threadbare carpet 

[Jilted John]

3 hours ago, Langtounlaud said:

Is the pitch not due for renewal soon? Hopefully the board has money ringfenced for it. Don't want it to end up like Livi's threadbare carpet 

Livi’s pitch seems to come in for a lot of criticism by top flight clubs but I’m pretty certain it’s exactly the same surface as ours. Even installed by the same company.

[Scary Bear]

52 minutes ago, Jilted John said:

Livi’s pitch seems to come in for a lot of criticism by top flight clubs but I’m pretty certain it’s exactly the same surface as ours. Even installed by the same company.

Maybe they put their one in on a Friday.

[Scary Bear]

4 hours ago, Langtounlaud said:

Is the pitch not due for renewal soon? Hopefully the board has money ringfenced for it. Don't want it to end up like Livi's threadbare carpet 

It was only installed in 2018! According to newspaper reports at the time the works cost around half a million pounds. Not sure what the costs for relaying the surface are.

 

[true_rover]

49 minutes ago, Scary Bear said:

It was only installed in 2018! According to newspaper reports at the time the works cost around half a million pounds. Not sure what the costs for relaying the surface are.

 

I would assume less to relay as you would only be doing the surface rather than the foundations that were put in.

[stevoraith]

2 hours ago, Jilted John said:

Livi’s pitch seems to come in for a lot of criticism by top flight clubs but I’m pretty certain it’s exactly the same surface as ours. Even installed by the same company.

There’s been quite a lot of chat (stemming from an interview(s) of John Simm) that we put down a different ‘underlay’ than Livi did. 
It sounds like this wasn’t by design, rather it was a ‘happy accident’ and we ended up with a ‘rugby spec’ sub-layer which improves the pitch when compared to Livi’s. 
You’d have to ask players who’ve played on both if there’s any noticeable difference. 

[da_no_1]

31 minutes ago, stevoraith said:

There’s been quite a lot of chat (stemming from an interview(s) of John Simm) that we put down a different ‘underlay’ than Livi did. 
It sounds like this wasn’t by design, rather it was a ‘happy accident’ and we ended up with a ‘rugby spec’ sub-layer which improves the pitch when compared to Livi’s. 
You’d have to ask players who’ve played on both if there’s any noticeable difference. 

I've been to both grounds & watched games on both surfaces. To my untrained eye, Raiths' pitch is miles better than Livis'. It would be outrageous if you were forced to lift it.

[Double Jack D]

How long has the pitch been down? Must be about 5 years or so?

In that time I don't think I've heard one negative comment from a player, manager or TV commentator on the pitch relating to how the ball bounces or potential injuries to players etc. I have heard several (mostly from Raith side) about how it helps us play better football, particularly in comparison to the state of some grass pitches in the Jan to March period of the season.

Whilst plastic pitches generally seem to be getting stick left right and centre, genuinely feel like ours has been an outlier for some reason. It is certainly a miles better surface than I can ever remember grass providing at Starks Park.

[AllanJM]

We do also give the pitch a good soaking before the game and at half time which I would imagine makes a big difference to how it plays (Dick Campbell moaning about that last season is the only negative thing I can recall hearing about our pitch).

I certainly noticed at Hamilton a few weeks ago that the bounce was weird and the ball bobbled a bit when passed so I can see why some pitches  come in for criticism.

[SerieA]

We’ve played on a few others this season and over the last couple of years and ours seems far more superior.

We are the only ones who water pre game and at half time. Something I noticed in the Cup Final last year at Falkirk-and we didn’t look as slick on the ball.
Love a game on grass but would hate for us to have to rip it up.

[philpy]

A bit of a nightmare trying to buy any of the home or away replicas Just now!!

[Passionate]

56 minutes ago, SerieA said:

We’ve played on a few others this season and over the last couple of years and ours seems far more superior.

We are the only ones who water pre game and at half time. Something I noticed in the Cup Final last year at Falkirk-and we didn’t look as slick on the ball.
Love a game on grass but would hate for us to have to rip it up.

I think the newest pitch recently is Falkirk, then Airdrie ours was installed by a company called Greenfield I think,  and is commonly regarded as top notch for 3g,   watching the games last night with the wear and tear on them plus undersool heating wrecking them, I look forward to mud heaps in Feb and march,  if this is what the SPL want fair enough,  I guarantee if and when Dundee United go up and Livi come down, the drawbridge will get pulled up for grass and undersoil heating only , scuppering hopes of a number of clubs trying to get into the elite club.

[Ex Machina]

1 hour ago, philpy said:

A bit of a nightmare trying to buy any of the home or away replicas Just now!!

The club posted this a couple weeks back, seems like it's out of their (and Joma's) hands. Although no mention of the home top I'd be surprised if the lack of availability isn't due to the same supply chain issues. The club would definitely want them available, outside of launch it would be the busiest time of the year for sales.