You may remember TurfPro reported back in January the anger felt by Irish Premiership team Ballymena United when the co-users of the Showgrounds where they play, damaged the pitch via stock car racing which also takes place at the venue.
Unfortunately for the football club a similar incident happened again on Friday night (20th July) which was widely reported in the media.
Ballymena United Tweeted out pictures of the damage
The Belfast Telegraph reported that the chairman of Ballymena United has said the club's confidence in Mid and East Antrim Council has been "unfortunately dashed" after their newly laid pitch was cut up once again.
The paper says that in an open letter to fans, John Taggart spoke of his "total disappointment" that parts of the surface had been gouged.
It is estimated that a total of £250,000 has been spent on the new surface.
Mr Taggart said fears of damage had been raised by supporters and club members just over a month ago.
In the statement, he added: "At the AGM, concerns were raised at great length by shareholders about what efforts would be in place to protect the pitch from damage.
"Supporters were particularly vociferous that the council should not allow damage to the playing surface after such a capital spend of ratepayers' money."
In an interview with the BBC, Ballymena United's vice-chairman Don Stirling said, "Stock cars have every right to be there" but the two sports are "just not compatible".
He continued, "I honestly don't know what the solution is, but the council have to be held responsible.
"They can't keep cars off the pitch because if they veer off the track they have nowhere to go.
"They put down truck tyres (on Friday night) but they would have need massive tractor tyres to stop cars coming on the pitch."
However the BBC also interviewed Aubrey Arbuthnot, who runs Ballymena Raceway, who told them he was "fed up" with criticism directed at the race events and that he had done as much as he could to keep cars off the pitch.
"All I want is fair play. I'm a ratepayer, not like some of the people sounding off in the press," he said.
"We had 12 races last night. These cars race door handle to door handle. There's up to 60 cars racing. Only two cars went off the track in separate incidents."
The BBC showed the damage to the pitch the morning after the stock car racing
A spokesperson for the council told the BBC, "We are deeply disappointed by last night's incident and fully appreciate and understand the frustration around this.
"Ballymena Showgrounds is a multi-use facility, enjoyed by a wide range of local sporting organisations.
"The measures put in place to protect the new surface at the venue were inadequate for last night's event.
"Remedial works are being carried out on the pitch today.
"As the owners of the venue, we are fully committed to doing all that we can to safeguard the new pitch, and we are considering a range of measures to minimise the risk of damage to the surface as a matter of urgency."
