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THE LATEST HEADLINES FROM THE IOG AND THE INDUSTRY
CASH BOOST
PIRATES PLEDGE £1M CORNISH PIRATES HAS pledged an extra £1m towards the Stadium for Cornwall project amid worries over Truro City’s ability to contribute. The football club, the Pirates and Truro and Penwith College had each pledged £2m to the scheme. But there are concerns that Helical, the firm that bought Truro City’s ground, will not pay the club before construction is due to start. Another £6m will come from Cornwall Council and central government. Spurs has unveiled a new state-ofthe-art pitch grow lighting system Image: @SpursO�cial/Twitter
STADIUM INNOVATION
World-first design for pitch grow lights at new Spurs stadium TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR HAS developed a world-first integrated pitch grow lighting system that is now in operation at the new 62,000-seater Spurs stadium, following the laying of the new pitch. The moving structure, developed in partnership with SGL, SCX and Hewitt Sportsturf, weighs about 120 tonnes with 864 lights covering 7,525sq m. The club’s old pitch grow lighting
“The structure is lifted hydraulically and rolls from one end of the pitch to the other”
6 THE GROUNDSMAN November 2018
system at White Hart Lane consisted of traditional ‘wheeled-in’ units rolled onto the pitch and manoeuvred into position. The club’s engineers have now developed an integrated system that is quicker and more effective to operate from a dedicated storage room underneath the North Stand. From here, the structure is lifted hydraulically onto rails mounted permanently on the east and west pitch trays, and then seamlessly rolls from one end of the pitch to the other. An irrigation system is fitted on top of the structure so that the grass can be watered from above when the units are in use, and an analysing system measures all pitch and growth conditions and displays data to the grounds team on the online SGL Portal.
30M EURO REVAMP
VISION FOR STADIUM
CONNACHT RUGBY HAS announced plans to redevelop The Sportsground stadium in Galway. The development is expected to cost about €30m (£26m) and will increase capacity to 12,000. The site will also house the Irish province’s new highperformance training centre. Galway Sportsground currently has a capacity of just over 8,000.
£100K INVESTMENT
GRANTS FOR PARKS FOUR UK PARKS are set to benefit from £100,000, which will encourage local people to get active. Grants from The London Marathon Charitable Trust have been awarded through the Active Spaces programme in partnership with Fields in Trust. The four recipients of £25,000 are The People’s Park in Ballymena, Antrim; Halewood Park in Knowsley, Merseyside; West Pilton Park in Edinburgh; and Gelligaled Park in Rhonda Cynon Taf, south Wales.