All league hockey has to be played on astro turf pitches on a Saturday. Currently the club uses the pitch at Beaconside for it's home fixtures however it has been a long ambition of the club to have it's own hockey pitch at the Riverway site.
Due to a lot of development in the sport done by the club there are now too many teams (6 mens sides, 5 ladies sides) in order to fit in all the required home games each Saturday on the pitch at Beaconside meaning some teams are having to play their home fixtures at Alleynes in Stone (not ideal)
To further complicate matters the future of Beaconside is under threat due to the University moving and there is a distinct possibility there will be no astro turf pitches that are suitable for playing hockey in Stafford within the near future.
The club want to build an astro turf pitch on their privately owned land with their own money for the purposes of playing hockey on (that will also allow other sports to be played on it) and also make improvements to the 2nd cricket pitch
In among the many comments of support the ridiculous objections include:
- The primary purpose of the astro pitch isn't for football - because obviously football is the centre of everything and why would a cricket and hockey club want to build a football pitch?
- There are more football teams in Stafford so why build a hockey pitch - see above
- You can't play football on it - even though it won't be it's primary purpose, yes you can. However if a football astro was built, you can't play hockey on it so obviously that won't be something a hockey club would want to do
- Why can't you play on a different day of the week - not possible
- Why can't you use the privately owned facilities of one of our rivals i.e. Stone Hockey club - don't think that even needs justifying
- The 2nd cricket pitch will become unusable - completely false
- You are building it on council land - completely false
- Loss of a rugby pitch - this is probably the most political point. When St Leonards rugby club had to give up using their pitches a few years ago, despite agreeing to provide them with alternatives, the council didn't so the cricket and hockey club offered them temporary use of their facilities i.e. they use the outfield of the 2nd cricket pitch. Now the fact that the club wants to use their land to the play the sport participated in by it's membership is being used as an objection even though discussions are already being held around finding alternatives for the rugby club so they won't loose any facilities