GMA Celebrates Decade Of Grassroots Pitch Improvement

The Pitch Advisory Service, run by the Grounds Management Association (GMA), is celebrating a decade of grassroots pitch improvement.

Over the last ten years, the GMA’s skilled team of regional pitch advisors has been working with grassroots sports clubs to raise the standards of sports surfaces and train volunteers.

In that time, almost 50,000 pitches have been improved across grassroots football, cricket, rugby league and union. The programme has worked with more than 12,500 clubs and 14,500 volunteers.

The Pitch Advisory Service, formerly the Grounds and Natural Turf Improvement Programme, was launched in 2014 and is funded by Sport England and the Football Foundation, working in association with the FA, ECB, RFL and RFU.

Jason Booth, who leads the Pitch Advisory Service, said: “This is a brilliant example of sporting bodies working together to raise the standards of sports surfaces and the understanding of sports turf management practices among grassroots sports clubs across England. 

“There has never been more pressure on pitches. Whether that’s the effect of more extreme weather caused by climate change, or more demand as a greater and more diverse range of people want to play sport.

“We all want more people playing – it brings so many health and wellbeing benefits. To enable that, we need to make sure our grassroots pitches are properly maintained – grounds are literally the foundation of sport. We need to recognise that, value grounds teams, and invest in them.”

Any club in England looking for support can contact the Pitch Advisory Service to find out more: www.thegma.org.uk/services/pitch-advisory-service

There are also a host of free resources available with the Grounds Management Toolkit, essential grounds maintenance resources for volunteers from the GMA.

The Grounds Management Framework is a good place to start to consider the surface quality a club is aiming for, and the investment and skills needed to get there.