The Egg chasers relegation

[tmesis]

Irish shared The Stoop before moving into the Madejski.

They were they for only one season 1999/2000, averaging just over 4000.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999%E2%8 ... ugby_union)

I suspect that if they go down, crowds will be even lower than that at the Madejski, and at £25000 a game, the first 1000-1500 of that will go straight towards paying rent.

The Madejski is a horrible venue when crowds get to that level, which will put fans off going.

In short, London Irish could be stuck between playing in a venue that's far too big and too expensive, and simply having nowhere else to play.

[sandman]

Are people genuinely talking about rugby on here?

sure, some people can appreciate a wide range of sports. I understand for some a simple game like football is as much as they can handle but there are more sophisticated options

Lol at rugby being sophisticated. A load repressed homosexuals jumping on each other.

There are plenty of sophisticated sports. Rugby is not one of them.

[Nameless]

You're a cheerless fcuker nameless. Go on smile.

Nah, you just can't cope with subtle humour !

[Nameless]

The pitch is designed to cope with the use it gets. And the areas of worst wear are pretty obviously caused by football use.
It's fair to say if the pitch was used less, and especially if there were fewer double header weekends it might help keep it better but I don't think there is much evidence that the rugby causes the pitch problems.

Irish shared The Stoop before moving into the Madejski.

As for rugby players being repressed homosexuals it's a thought that rugby is one of the few sports where openly gay players and officials have been involved at the very top level with barely an eyebrow raised. Repressed or just not bothered about it ? Whereas football is way too scared of it to do anything other than use it as a term of abuse. Very sophisticated......

Not sure if you are on a wind up or totally dillusional!

Rugby has destroyed that pitch. The bare patches are set down from line outs and scrums! The pitch can cope with a match on a Saturday with a downpour but throw in a wet rugby match on a Sunday and it takes it toll.

I will be delighted if Irish get relegated if it means it's not financially viable to stay at the madjeski and go elsewhere.

Not too many line outs in the centre of the goal. Or where the prematch kick in takes place. That strip along the touch line from the half way to one end must have been a hell of a scrum and how come so many scrums happen in the centre circle !
Line outs happen all up and down the pitch and scrubs are dotted about all over so the wear is spread. Football however wears pitches very unevenly as the action is concentrated in key areas.
obviously the more the pitch is used the less recovery time there is for it but to claim the pitch problems are simply rugby related is daft..

[paultheroyal]

You always get wear and tear in goalmouths and where the assistant would run.

A Third in from each touch line down both sides of pitch is thread bare, scrum and line out completion related.

Nothing would convince me otherwise that other significant bare patches and symmetrical in places to other areas of the pitch are caused other than rugby.

[Ian Royal]

You always get wear and tear in goalmouths and where the assistant would run.

A Third in from each touch line down both sides of pitch is thread bare, scrum and line out completion related.

Nothing would convince me otherwise that other significant bare patches and symmetrical in places to other areas of the pitch are caused other than rugby.

If it's the rugby, why isn't it a problem every year?

[paultheroyal]

It is to be fair, certainly this time of year.

Have to say the pitch has not been great last couple of years since change of groundsman team.

[tmesis]

If it's the rugby, why isn't it a problem every year?

It's a problem when there are games following a spell of prolonged wet weather, when the pitch is very soft as will cut up more easily.

Us playing seven games on it in just over a month won't have helped either, but the damage caused by the rugby after heavy rain is pretty common. Sometimes we get lucky, but this year we weren't, and it's clear there are large worn patches well away from areas that football pitches normally suffer.

[West Stand Man]

The pitch is designed to cope with the use it gets. And the areas of worst wear are pretty obviously caused by football use.
It's fair to say if the pitch was used less, and especially if there were fewer double header weekends it might help keep it better but I don't think there is much evidence that the rugby causes the pitch problems.

Irish shared The Stoop before moving into the Madejski.

As for rugby players being repressed homosexuals it's a thought that rugby is one of the few sports where openly gay players and officials have been involved at the very top level with barely an eyebrow raised. Repressed or just not bothered about it ? Whereas football is way too scared of it to do anything other than use it as a term of abuse. Very sophisticated......

Not sure if you are on a wind up or totally dillusional!

Rugby has destroyed that pitch. The bare patches are set down from line outs and scrums! The pitch can cope with a match on a Saturday with a downpour but throw in a wet rugby match on a Sunday and it takes it toll.

I will be delighted if Irish get relegated if it means it's not financially viable to stay at the madjeski and go elsewhere.

To put it bluntly - no rugby hasn't. And no, it isn't line outs or scrums that have damaged the pitch. It is a much deeper issue with the ground the pitch is built on.

[Royal Rother]

Whatever, rugby is still shit.

Especially rugby played by London Irish this season it would appear.

[RoyalBlue]

Lol at the idea they have not strengthened ! They signed some top class players but sadly everyone else has more money so just keeps moving further ahead.
There is a thought that a season in the Championship would be no bad thing as they get parachute payments and would win just about every game by a big margin if they kept the squad together. I think they'd stay here for that one season as the crowds would probably not change (fewer away fans balanced by more locals returning to see a winning team).
The Brentford move seems unlikely, there's no benefit for them to go there unless it is at zero cost. They need a ground of their own but I've seen nothing to indicate that is even on the horizon.
Would be really sad if they left and it wouldn't make that much difference to the pitch so we'd need another excuse for that....

It is absolute nonsense to claim it wouldn't make that much difference to the pitch! Have you not noticed where the areas of worst wear are? As someone who clearly follows rugby, you must be able to spot how those areas are linked with that game.

It would be a good day for the football pitch if LI buggered off somewhere else.

To put it bluntly - no rugby hasn't. And no, it isn't line outs or scrums that have damaged the pitch. It is a much deeper issue with the ground the pitch is built on.

Oh come off it! Of course they have damaged the pitch. It is absolutely absurd to claim otherwise. The areas of worst wear are not mere coincidence.

Of course rugby isn't the only cause of the damage but there are clearly areas where it is the main cause of the damage and it won't help the usual areas of wear on a football pitch either.

Whether or not there is an issue that makes the pitch more susceptible to damage is a completely different issue. Have the ground staff said there is an issue with the ground the pitch is on? I would be very surprised if that is the underlying cause of the problem.

And one final thing. I doubt you could find any of our managers, including the present one, who wouldn't say that they would prefer LI not to be using the pitch.

[AthleticoSpizz]

Whilst having the ability to embrace both sports, I have the inability to understand just what is the big "song and dance" about the pitch is about.

Whilst it may not look too pretty, it is hardly become the Somme.....short of wheeling out the usual cliche' of it "being the same for both teams", it has barely affected our home performances and I'm sure we get to play on much worse surfaces elsewhere.....these professionals are adaptable

As for LI, yes they are sh1t at the moment, but just like some of their previously relegated peers (Quins etc) they will be expected to bounce straight back up....cannot see their tenancy being changed too much for a while yet.

[Maneki Neko]

The pitch is designed to cope with the use it gets. And the areas of worst wear are pretty obviously caused by football use.
It's fair to say if the pitch was used less, and especially if there were fewer double header weekends it might help keep it better but I don't think there is much evidence that the rugby causes the pitch problems.

Irish shared The Stoop before moving into the Madejski.

As for rugby players being repressed homosexuals it's a thought that rugby is one of the few sports where openly gay players and officials have been involved at the very top level with barely an eyebrow raised. Repressed or just not bothered about it ? Whereas football is way too scared of it to do anything other than use it as a term of abuse. Very sophisticated......

Not sure if you are on a wind up or totally dillusional!

Rugby has destroyed that pitch. The bare patches are set down from line outs and scrums! The pitch can cope with a match on a Saturday with a downpour but throw in a wet rugby match on a Sunday and it takes it toll.

I will be delighted if Irish get relegated if it means it's not financially viable to stay at the madjeski and go elsewhere.

100 percent agreed. the bloke is mental


all of the worst bits outside of the 6 yard area are rugby based. all in the areas where the scrums happen.
you know, those massive patches half way between the box and the edge of the pitch, where there is not any unusually high football activity

[Tony Le Mesmer]

cannot believe we only charge them 0.6 million a year.
ridiculously under priced.

Is it? Sounds like more than the market rate to me. I seem to remember Richmond paying about 1/3rd of that. It just doesn't sound very much when you compare it to the outrageously overvalued product that is professional football.

[Maneki Neko]

You always get wear and tear in goalmouths and where the assistant would run.

A Third in from each touch line down both sides of pitch is thread bare, scrum and line out completion related.

Nothing would convince me otherwise that other significant bare patches and symmetrical in places to other areas of the pitch are caused other than rugby.

If it's the rugby, why isn't it a problem every year?

A. it is.
B. its been an exceptionally wet year, making it even worse

[Maneki Neko]

cannot believe we only charge them 0.6 million a year.
ridiculously under priced.

Is it? Sounds like more than the market rate to me. I seem to remember Richmond paying about 1/3rd of that. It just doesn't sound very much when you compare it to the outrageously overvalued product that is professional football.

don't care what the going rate is
we are currently relaying a pitch every two years which costs us 1 million quid+ a pop.

[Ian Royal]

You always get wear and tear in goalmouths and where the assistant would run.

A Third in from each touch line down both sides of pitch is thread bare, scrum and line out completion related.

Nothing would convince me otherwise that other significant bare patches and symmetrical in places to other areas of the pitch are caused other than rugby.

If it's the rugby, why isn't it a problem every year?

A. it is.
B. its been an exceptionally wet year, making it even worse

It's not been an exceptionally wet year in the slightest. The last couple of months have certainly been above average, but May to January the rainful for the Thames area is 109% of the 30 year average.

It was far wetter a couple of years ago and the pitch was ok then.

[Maneki Neko]

109% is 9% still higher than average.....

the pitch wasn't ok then, we have this issue every year at this time.

just because there was another year with more rain doesn't mean this year hasn't had a lot of rain.

you admit/dismiss the last few months as being very high, but fail to realie that the last few months have been exactly the time where the pitch has been really bad.
this is Jan:

a rainfall value that has only been beaten 3 times in 100 years
the winter as a whole:

only beaten 1 time in 100 + years

2015 was the 5th wettest year I 100 years

the graphs show the current 2016 value predicted to be very close to the highest ever value, and way in excess of the 1981-2010 average line

im not sure what your definition of exceptional is
but im going with this:

exceptional
adjective

1.
unusual; not typical.

id say that 1-3 times in 100 years defo qualifies

[AthleticoSpizz]

cannot believe we only charge them 0.6 million a year.
ridiculously under priced.

Is it? Sounds like more than the market rate to me. I seem to remember Richmond paying about 1/3rd of that. It just doesn't sound very much when you compare it to the outrageously overvalued product that is professional football.

don't care what the going rate is
we are currently relaying a pitch every two years which costs us 1 million quid+ a pop.

(partly funded by LI)

[Nameless]

cannot believe we only charge them 0.6 million a year.
ridiculously under priced.

Is it? Sounds like more than the market rate to me. I seem to remember Richmond paying about 1/3rd of that. It just doesn't sound very much when you compare it to the outrageously overvalued product that is professional football.

don't care what the going rate is
we are currently relaying a pitch every two years which costs us 1 million quid+ a pop.

In recent years we've relaid the pitch because of a nematode infestation which killed the roots and because the drainage was knackered. It's supposed to be relaid regularly anyway. Some clubs do it every season and it is designed to take a certain amount of usage in a season, which we don't hit. LI make a hefty contribution to the relaying costs.
The season before the Thai's took over the pitch was due for a scheduled relay and it wasn't done because we had no money. I did hear LI were still asked for their share....
And LOL at those pointing out that the worst non football wear is rugby related. Yep, if you exclude the wear caused by football then rugby is responsible !!