Former League One side Coventry City Manager Steven Pressley has warned that a ground-sharing arrangement between Scottish Championship side Hibernian and Edinburgh's professional rugby team "will only work if a new hi-tech playing surface is laid at Easter Road," according to Paul Forsyth of the LONDON TIMES. Pressley said that a hybrid pitch that is "part-natural, part-synthetic" is essential if "longstanding negotiations between Hibernian and the Scottish Rugby Union" are to succeed where they have previously failed. Pressley was in charge of Coventry earlier this season, when the Ricoh Arena was purchased by Premiership Rugby side London Wasps. Coventry became tenants, the two sports coexisted "and the grass pitch, already in a state of disrepair, took a pounding." Pressley: "It can work, but you need to spend a lot of money on the right type of playing surface. It can be a very expensive outlay, but the truth is it's the only option or you will suffer greatly. We just had a grass pitch and the state of it was appalling to say the least. If Hibs and Edinburgh try to do it on the cheap, they will have a problem. If they don't, it can work, 100 percent." A similar pitch, "combining real grass with artificial fibre, has been discussed by Hibernian and Edinburgh." It is the "only one that is likely to meet" with Hibernian coach Alan Stubbs' approval. Whether they can "agree on how it should be funded is another matter." The football club is "unlikely to foot the bill for an upgrade that would be carried out only for the rugby team's benefit." Neither will the SRU, which has "already invested in a similar surface at Murrayfield, be desperate to splash out on another, especially when there is no certainty that profits will result" (LONDON TIMES, 5/12).
