Manchester United's Old Trafford Pitch To Become Part-Grass, Part-Synthetic Surface

ManU will spend £800,000 ($1.2M) "ripping up the Old Trafford pitch this summer as they convert to a part-synthetic surface," according to the MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS. The stadium hosted a legends match between ManU and Real Madrid Sunday, and the playing surface "will be dug up on Monday." Pitch specialists Desso, which installed the surface at Wembley, "have been charged with redoing the ground" (MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS, 6/1). In London, Mark Ogden reported having been impressed by the success of the Desso surface at Wembley, which "ended the teething troubles at the stadium following three years of problems in the wake of its reopening" in '07, former ManU Manager Alex Ferguson "urged the club to follow the same path as the national stadium." The new pitch will be a fusion of grass and 20 million artificial fibres, which intertwine with the natural grass 20cm beneath the surface to "strengthen the playing area and make it more robust and stable" (TELEGRAPH, 5/31).