Permitted Footwear – 3G Pitch at The 1878 Stadium, Burnham Football Club
Burnham Football Club has invested heavily in a state-of-the-art 3G artificial pitch. We estimate between 100-150 players and coaches walk across it every weekend. Alongside our 7 home teams, who also train on the pitch during the week, several schools, football academies and football professionals also use the pitch on a regular basis too. That’s a lot of people walking on our 3G pitch.
For the benefit of everyone
Several leagues use The 1878 Stadium for their cup finals. Professional photographers love taking match day photos here and children thrive when being coached here. That’s predominantly because of the way the pitch looks. In dry summer months it remains lush and green. In the cold winter months while other teams fall foul of heavy rain and freezing weather conditions our matches continue as scheduled.
We even have Premier League stars and other professional footballers who sometimes hire our state of the art 3G pitch for one to one sessions with their own coaches and production companies who hire the facilities for shooting firms and music videos.
Regardless of other venues the 3G pitch at the 1878 Stadium is FIFA Certified and as such we have very strict rules for anyone entering the field of play. Anyone entering the fenced pitch area, regardless of whether playing or not, MUST wear appropriate footwear.
Why do we have strict rules?
Sitting or laying on the pitch (unless genuinely injured), wearing flat shoes, trainers, sliders, socks or bear feet has the effect of ironing the grass fibres. Flattening the surface damages the complex water drainage system, causing waterlogging and dramatically reduce the life expectancy of the artificial pitch.
You can see from the photos how fibres that remain upright maintains drainage and a quality playing surface for matches. Whereas flattened fibres can cause waterlogging and other issues for players despite regular pitch brushing and ongoing maintenance.
Therefore, taking your boots off and wearing socks only, or walking across the pitch with bear feet, flat soled shoes, trainers or sliders with flat soles are NOT permitted – No excuses and abusive behaviour towards staff will not be tolerated.
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