Skip to main content Skip to site footer
Club News

CHANGING ROOM UPGRADE WORK CONTINUES

3 June 2016

Club News

CHANGING ROOM UPGRADE WORK CONTINUES

3 June 2016

The football season may have finished a couple of weeks ago now for Phil Parkinson's men, but there is still plenty of work taking place around the Coral Windows Stadium as preparations begin already for the 2016/2017 campaign.


Following the great success of the club's recent 'Upgrade The Parade' fan-funding campaign, the dressing room area within Valley Parade is getting revamped for the new season thanks to club partners, Mitton Group.


The improvements will see changes made to the traditional home, away and match officials dressing rooms, along with alterations also being made to the physio room.


On top of the redevelopment work inside the stadium itself, the Valley Parade playing surface is also receiving some attention.


Pitch maintenance work has begun as well this week to ensure everything is ready and in place for City's home friendly against Premier League newcomers Burnley on 23 July.


City's Facilities Manager David Dowse explained: "After going through the various planning stages, we have actually decided to change the dressing rooms around.


"The new enlarged dressing room that used to be occupied by the away teams will now become the home dressing room for next season.


"We will be turning that area around so it will be a complete revamp for our own players and hopefully there will be that 'wow' factor for them when they come back in for the new games.


"We will also be making the dressing rooms for the away team and match officials bigger as part of Football League regulations.


"People will know probably better than me but I've been told that our last major update to the dressing rooms was back in 1959 so it is a long time that this area has done the business for us.


"It did look very dated unfortunately and needed bringing up to standard. I'm pleased that we have taken this opportunity to make some major changes and I believe our players will see the benefit of that."


Speaking about the pitch work, Dowse continued: "This year, we are fraze-mowing the pitch, which is basically a process that takes off the grass and the leaf from the surface. It leaves the root in place but it gets rid of any debris, any weeds or anything similar that might be in there.  


"It has been verti-drained today (Friday) and opened up. There will then be a small amount of sand coming in tomorrow (Saturday). 


"The pitch will be fertilised and reseeded afterwards to get the grass growing again."


With the club pushing ahead with their dressing room upgrades, plans are also being made for City's new video scoreboard later this summer.


Dowse added: "Obviously the fan-funding we received was fantastic and the two main projects from that was the work on the dressing rooms, which we needed to do, and the work the supporters wanted to see, which was a new screen.


"Clearly the pitch and the dressing rooms have to be ready for our pre-season games, the screen is likely to be a little bit longer because there is substantial work there.


"We have ordered in the big screen, which comes from abroad, and we are now speaking to surveyors who will run various tests in the corner area of the South Stand (T L Dallas Stand) where it will be positioned, replacing the old scoreboard.


"We have to go through a number of processes before work can begin so it might not be in place for the start of the season but it will be installed as soon as possible."



Fans can hear more from City's Facilities Manager on the club's 'off-season' work by visiting Bantams Player HD below.



Advertisement block

iFollow Next Match Tickets Contact