Just after the season finale against Nottingham Forest, AFC Bournemouth ushered in contractors White Horse, from Oxfordshire, to rip up the existing pitch inside the main stadium, as well as the two training pitches, which is costing Max Denim a handsome £750,000.
Manager Eddie Howe is quoted in the Bournemouth Evening Echo as saying: "As you move forward and the club grows, the infrastructure and facilities have to move with you. The pitches were a concern to us last season, not just the main one but the training pitches as well and, at times, they were unusable. For a Championship club, we had to look to improve them and Maxim has been good enough to see the benefit of that and has invested a lot of money to enable us to improve the three pitches which will have a major impact at every level for us. If you were to look at other Championship clubs, I would say 99 per cent already have this in place and it is a case of us trying to catch up and move forward with those clubs. We have to try to live with the clubs we are competing with in every sense and, although we will do it on a smaller scale, we have to move with the times. It is important, not just with facilities but with infrastructure and support staff, to be able to give our players every chance to excel at Championship level and this is just another stepping stone towards that. There is a difference in quality with these pitches in terms of grass and how the ball will roll and there is a definite improvement in durability. They will last longer and will see us through a tough winter. When you are training on two pitches all season, they take a lot of wear and use. With our style, it is absolutely imperative we give the players the tools to play that type of football and the pitch is key to that".