West Ham United Women have announced work on a new state-of-the-art playing surface at Dagenham and Redbridge.
At Victoria Road, the new hybrid pitch used by both West Ham United Women and Dagenham & Redbridge FC claims to be one of ‘the best surfaces in their respective leagues’.
In addition to this, the club will be adding a new broadcast gantry, performance analysis system and press seating will be installed to further improve the facilities at the stadium.
The work has been made possible through a Football Stadia Improvement Fund grant to support improvements at grounds FA Women’s Super League clubs play at. The FSIF is solely funded by the Premier League and is the country’s largest provider of grants towards projects that help improve the comfort and safety of lower-league football grounds in both the professional and amateur game. These improvements range from new football stands and turnstiles to floodlighting and improved provision for disabled supporters.
To ensure that the surface will be ready in time for the coming season, work commenced on Monday 31 May. West Ham United groundsman, Dougie Robertson went into further technical detail on the work that is taking place at the stadium:
“We are rebuilding the playing surface at Dagenham to a much higher standard. The pitch shall become a hybrid grass surface built on a sand base, increasing drainage and playability whilst maintaining a consistent surface. Teams like Real Madrid, Manchester City and Brentford are all enjoying this product at the moment.
“This is a huge improvement on the playing surface at Dagenham with a full irrigation system also being added. The pitch shall be around 5% artificial, be more stable and will provide optimum player performance on and off the ball.”
Dagenham & Redbridge managing director, Stephen Thompson said: “The technology around pitch surfaces has improved greatly over the past few years but the surface we will have, coupled with a new drainage and irrigation system should provide us with one of the best pitches in the National League. The Club is extremely grateful to the support of the Football Stadia Improvement Fund which has enabled us to go ahead with the developments.”
