It's a fact of life that stadiums today have to find means other than their primary sporting function to make themselves financially viable.
Usage such as hosting multi-sports, community events and of course in larger stadiums, concert staging are commonplace. All of this of course puts extra pressure on the groundstaff to make sure the pitch is in a suitable condition for the stadium's main occupation. And inevitably situations will arise where the on-field results will call into question the extra-curricular activities of the pitch.
The latest example of this has cropped up with Sunderland FC's poor start to this season's Premier League campaign. So far the Black Cats have only achieved a single point from five league games. And this sort of poor start to a season has not been uncommon in recent years. It's a fact that the club has only won one game before October in four years, and have not won one of their opening four fixtures since 2010.
Manager David Moyes, has theorised that one possible explanation for what is becoming a traditional bad start to the season, is the Stadium of Light playing host to summer music concerts. Since 2009 the summer break has featured shows from acts such as Foo Fighters, Take That, Bruce Springsteen, Coldplay, Rihanna, and Beyonce.
Now those gigs have no doubt brought great financial benefit into both the club itself and the city of Sunderland, but what they have also meant is that the team has requested to play away for the first game of the season in recent years to allow the pitch extra time to recover - doing so six out of the last eight seasons. It also means that there hasn’t been any home pre-season games in the summer months.
And it's this which David Moyes is offering as a possible explanation to the team making such a slow start to the season.
He was quoted by local paper The Chronicle, as saying, "I made one suggestion was that we need to get used to having a pre-season friendly at home.
“I think they’ve said for the last five or six years they [the club] don’t want their first game at home.
“I reckon that if in the last five years we’d had three or four of those first games at home, we’d have won at least one of them. I can’t prove that but that’s my thought.
He went on to say it was down to the club's board to make the policy change for the good of the team. He said "I think the club, and I’m talking about the leadership, need to say ‘no we’re not doing that, we’re actually going to see if we can get the first PL game at home, play a pre-season tournament at home get a couple of games on the pitch, give the crowd something else to see as well.
"Maybe that might not be the answer, but I’m trying to find one.”
Clearly clubs like Sunderland are not going to stop hosting concerts and the like. It's a all part of the stadium's remit - and as a consequence it becomes part of the modern turf professional's skill set. Dealing with the set-up, protection of and rehabilitation of the pitch following such a disruptive event as a concert is part of the modern job. An element which our industry is well trained and prepared for.
But maybe a balance needs to be struck? If in-season results are being adversely affected, despite the best efforts of the groundstaff, then perhaps the number and the timing of the events should be carefully considered? Purely concentrating on the short-term bottom line surely won't benefit clubs if support starts to wane for a failing team?
