The UK’s pursuit of the perfect pitch changed football | Hacker News Reader

The UK’s pursuit of the perfect pitch changed football

theguardian.com

81 pointsyou-bet20 comments

I've read online (take it with a pinch of salt) that one of the reasons for the Premier League's global success is making sure that the "presentation" layer* of what the audience sees is pristine. Early investment by Sky Sports in HD technology and pristine pitches are part of this. Contrast that to say Serie A, where the camera feeds looked slightly "muddy" by comparison, and the pitches not as good.

* In some cases, it's really just a facade, e.g. with Manchester United's Old Trafford stadium. United's American owners have quite literally let the stadium rot, to the point where the roof is leaking and the wifi didn't work on match days, which is quite embarrassing for one of the most storied stadiums in world football. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B87aESnOWKg

I think it's much more about the facts that

1) They speak English. Players, expert commentators (former players), managers etc. give interviews, tweet, comment etc. before, during and after the matches. It's a huge part of the product. You just don't get all that fuzz with Spanish, Italian, German, or French football. Those leagues can only sell the match itself internationally, not everything that surrounds it. Unless you speak Spanish, you don't know what Messi said about his hattrick in the last match or what he thinks about rumors of him changing club. You may not even know what he sounds like. You don't know his agent, his father, his brother, his wife, ex girlfriends etc. With Premier League players, that's part of the package. For better or worse.

2) So much Russian and Arab oil money floated to the clubs the last 20 years, not just as sponsorships but through actual buyouts of the clubs. Several of the best teams in continental clubs cannot be bought because they are owned by the fans.

> 1) They speak English

That's often a bit of a generous statement. They "speak" English yes, but not with anywhere near the sort of fluency that you would expect from someone on a multi-million salary who can afford to take some intensive English lessons.

I don't mind the footballers lack of fluency, since their job is to kick the ball around.

But the managers I'm far less forgiving, their job entails communicating with all relevant stakeholders, which involves interviews which they should be able to deliver in a fluent and comprehensible manner.

But that's the problem with English I guess. Its too "easy" as a language, you can get away with a severe lack of fluency and the other side will be able to put the pieces together.

Does it matter that a manager doesn't speak English well if he wins? Isn't that really what he was hired for?

In addition English clubs were the first to solve the hooligans problem and as such were the first to remove "prison camp" like fences between the pitch and public, giving games a fantastic atmosphere.

> were the first to remove "prison camp" like fences between the pitch and public

Google "Hillsborough disaster".

I suspect that had more to do with "removing prison camp fences" than a desire to give "fantastic atmostphere".

The “gentrification” of football arguably hurt the atmosphere, at least for the bigger premier league teams. There were far more working class local fans singing non stop during the bad old days. If you see older videos the atmosphere was off the wall compared to today (if you want to see truly bonkers atmosphere just look up Boca-River derby or Greek or Turkish football). It was an unfortunate side effect of cleaning up the game and turning it into a tourist magnet.

I have to disagree, the atmosphere in English stadiums is absolute trash. They've been gentrified to the point of death. I can't think of a league in Europe that doesn't have a better atmosphere that the PL. As an on-site spectator, the lower English leagues are much better.

Well the pitch part was simply competition, it started when one team decide to take pitch seriously and had competitive advantage, then everyone else had to do it. EPL is also the most competitive league, people were watching lots of it, there were money, and then incentives.... And as mentioned, expert commentators really set it apart.

Generally speaking football is about the only thing Brits give a damn about. Since all the incentives align, great things came out of it. ( Which also made football too commercial and not as fun to watch )

This sounds correct in my experience. Soccer matches in stadiums that were used for the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa (SA) often play at the same time as English Premier League(EPL) matches. We often switch channels between matches in SA and UK and there is a a marked difference in the quality of just about everything. From the pitch to the camera work, commentary and the quality of the picture. It is obvious that a lot more money and planning goes into the EPL as a product.

I think this is something beyond 'playing potential'.

The 'lawn' is an obsessive compulsive thing at very least in Anglo WASPy culture, possibly on the Continent in some ways, that definitely transcends the game of football. It's more obvious on golf courses at least in North America.

There's something about middle age in these cultures that just draws you in, like a growing whisper. As a young man golfing, I would snicker at the overbearing perfectionism of the grounds-keeping ... while at the same time admiring the beauty of it. But now I think I get the addiction.

Every time you play a video game, you're introduced to this fantasy like creative perfection ... it's a little bit like that ... but 'the perfection is in reality'.

Whether it's a grand idea or not, I suggest this industry is going to grow and grow. Pun intended.

Agreed: the lawn is much more important in anglo culture. Compare with Italian or French formal gardens. Britain has a temparate climate with high precipitation, which does make lawn cultivation easier than Mediterranean climates. Just take a look at tennis grass courts or cricket pitches in hotter climates like Australia. The Australian Open used to be played on grass, like Wimbledon, but switched to hard courts back in the 80s.

>Britain has a temparate climate with high precipitation, which does make lawn cultivation easier than Mediterranean climates

While true, most of the professional lawn is imported from the Netherlands and Denmark. Considering the amount of money in football, the state of the pitches in England has more to do with the care and the method put into it than the weather. After all there are some pitches just as good in Spain. Barcelona probably pioneered the obsession with perfectly tailored grass.

It's exactly like that. Even being 'innoculated' with stories of how it's a relic of a feudal show-off doesn't work. I resented mowing the lawn with my chores as a child, but then once I owned some grass, I saw every weed as a personal insult, and I became a lawn addict within a year.

But even if it's a memetic virus, I don't resent it.

Neighbors or their landscaping services running small gas engines day in and day out in the service of some manicured lawn ideal is one of my least favorite things about having neighbors.

Now I look for the surrounding area to be slightly weedy or unkempt, but not completely out of control, as a sign that no one is going nuts with lawn care. Which I then take as a sign that no one is going to drive me nuts with their equipment.

The most ridiculous and obnoxious thing so far is the apartment building across the street from my current place. The landscaping company had a man on a riding blower who was also using a backpack blower at the same time. What a cacophony of engine and blower noise to no useful purpose.

Hating weeds isn't the problem so much as using grass as the foundational goal.

This level of specialization in grass-growing would be a good theme for a mockumentary (like Best in Show)

Hahah... And there is another story, about perfect "pitch" in baseball too - https://www.si.com/mlb/2021/06/04/sticky-stuff-is-the-new-st...

Fantastic to see the UK leads the world in something

I read this headline in “American” English, and was confused.

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