Module 2:

2.4 Carrying Capacity: Limitations on games on played

2.4.1 Carry capacity: Introduction

1   You can’t have too many games on the pitch without it starting to deteriorate unacceptably. This is what carrying capacity of a pitch aims to clarify.

It can, in general terms, be defined as ”how much usage can take place on a pitch without creating a surface that produces an unacceptable standard of playing surface”.

This is not something anyone really wants to hear. Ideally, we will be able to play as many games as we like on a pitch and the surface will continue to be in a desirable state.

In practice we all know this isn’t really going to happen and a reality check is needed for all groundskeepers, especially grounds managers, but even more so for club coaches / managers, players and pitch owners / providers.

2   Understanding the realistic usage potential for a specific pitch is arguably the most important factor in being able to manage the pitch in a cost-effective way. The soil foundation or special construction has a distinct limiting effect, which might be better described as a constraint, on what can realistically be achieved.

3   How many times have we heard the comment about one-month after a May renovation of ‘Wow, my pitch looks brilliant’, to in the early part of the playing season of ‘My pitch is looking really good’, which by mid-season is not often commented about as it is looking neither too good nor too bad, and then in February as the end of the season approaches, ‘We’ve played 60 games so far, but the pitch is pretty bare in many places’. Superlatives of how well the pitch looks are few and far between by now. One positive message to take though is that at least a good number of games have been played.

However, the problem with this is that that pitch quality will have taken a back seat because not only has it not been managed properly, but the planning of the games schedule did not take into account what is termed the carrying capacity, also known as the sustainable use, of the pitch.