Mestalla pitch replacement over summer ahead of the LALIGA EA SPORTS kick-off

Javier Sánchez, head of maintenance at Valencia CF, explains how the stadium pitch has been replaced, which is now in pristine condition ahead of the start of LALIGA EA SPORTS.

The caretaking of the pitch is one of the day-to-day secrets of the stadium, which has the longest history in LALIGA. This summer, after almost a decade and in a season in which the Mestalla has played host to more than a hundred events -one of them The Champions Burger, which attracted more than 350,000 attendees for several weeks on the pitch-, Valencia CF have carried out work to replace the pitch to get it ready and in pristine condition ahead of the start of the official competition.

Javier Sánchez, head of maintenance at Valencia CF, explains that the process consists of several stages: "First of all, all the old pitch is stripped or milled, all the topsoil that was there before is removed, and once that part is done, a series of amendments such as fertilisers are added to encourage the root system to take root, some rotovator runs are made so that all that is mixed in the first 15 centimetres and at the same time it is decompacted from all the trampling in the rooting layer throughout the events".

Once this process has been completed, Javier Sánchez explains, "The pitch is levelled in quarters, it is left with the right slopes and once it is levelled, we come to the final phase: laying the new lawn, which comes from a nursery in Plasencia. It comes in rolls of 1.20 metres wide by 10 metres long and in approximately four days it can be perfectly installed".

The last replacement of the pitch was carried out in 2015 and for almost a decade it has been in perfect condition thanks to a great deal of maintenance work that has allowed it to be prolonged as long as possible. Now, after a busy summer, it is ready for our players to officially start the 2024-25 season this Saturday against FC Barcelona.

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