Sports field maintenance: no skill without knowledge

Appropriate support for clubs and local authorities

Anyone who wants to keep all the balls in the air for the maintenance of football and other natural grass pitches themselves faces a tough challenge today. The ever-changing and increasingly extreme weather conditions, the sometimes high playing load and ever-shorter rest periods, the lack of technical staff and the continuous evolution in both insights and solutions mean that even the most wealthy and well-organised clubs sometimes call on external help. With De Ceuster, for instance, which provides a wide range of support services to local teams and boards as well as major professional clubs.

De Ceuster is no stranger to the world of sports field management. For years, the contracting company has been maintaining and improving all kinds of sports facilities, with the emphasis on natural grass fields for mainly football, but also baseball, rugby and golf. Top quality is always the highest goal in this respect, although the way to get there dares to vary. 

From one-off advice to complete turnaround

“The questions we get from our customers are as diverse as the clubs themselves,” explains Thierry De Jonghe, technical adviser sport at De Ceuster. “A top club from the first division with an extensive in-house team may only need specific advice in case of unforeseen problems; other clubs don't have the staff to do so and entrust the entire sports field maintenance to us; and cities and municipalities mainly have questions about which pesticides they are still allowed to apply or what to look out for when tendering for a new sports field or park. For us, all these questions are equally valid, and the great thing is that we have both the knowledge and the resources in-house to provide appropriate answers to them at short notice.”

Renovation season

In the early summer months, it is all hands on deck at De Ceuster in any case. At that time, many clubs call on the contracting firm to renovate their pitches. “A good renovation is specialist work. On the one hand because the deadline by which the pitch has to be ready to play again is getting shorter and shorter, and on the other because no two years are the same. So you can't just do the same thing year after year; the conditions and any problems have to be duly considered.” 

“In the past, there might have been the idea that you just had to ‘patch up’ the pitch during such a renovation, but that is passé now. The aim is to prepare the pitch as well as possible for a new season. That means it is also the perfect time to tackle any problems and think about, for instance, sprinkling, choice of grass type, and so on. These are all things we think about. We not only supply the machinery and any personnel to carry out the renovation, but also seize the moment to provide targeted advice.”

Field service

For clubs that prefer to enjoy such support throughout the year, De Ceuster offers an interesting formula with the so-called ‘field service’. In exchange for a fixed monthly amount, clubs receive a number of services and man-hours at their disposal, which may be spread freely throughout the year. “Such a contract is always tailor-made. For example, one club needs a weekly consultation and contract workers; another has its own staff and needs only monthly advice. In any case, everything is done with the utmost transparency. Clubs can check at any time how many hours or budget remain. So they can schedule work according to their needs, but have the accounting advantage of a fixed monthly cost.”

The right hardware

The extensive expertise and technical knowledge in De Ceuster's sports team - Thierry himself has a history as a greenkeeper at Sporting Lokeren, KV Mechelen and Anderlecht - is backed up by that of the infra and horti teams on the one hand, and an extensive and innovative fleet of machinery on the other. “We have all the machines for proper sports field maintenance on hand and, thanks to our extensive arsenal, we can invariably keep waiting times short. But we also continuously invest in new machines and developments. For instance, we recently took over a company that specialises in drainage and we are working with drones to digitally map golf courses or detect problems on sports fields faster. This innovative outlook is also peculiar to De Ceuster and allows us to offer an even better service.”