Twickenham Stoop primed for Great Britain's move into 'Big Stadium Hockey'

Great Britain’s hockey teams will run out on a pioneering pop-up turf surface at Twickenham Stoop on Sunday in an unprecedented move towards ‘Big Stadium Hockey’, which is set to draw the sport’s largest crowd in the UK since the London 2012 Olympics.

The ground-breaking pitch has been installed at the home of Gallagher Premiership club Harlequins, which will host a double-header when Great Britain’s men and women face New Zealand in their final home games in the inaugural FIH Pro League.

With around 12,500 tickets sold, the event is also set to exceed the 10,000 attendances the Women’s Hockey World Cup attracted at Lee Valley last summer.

Developed with the latest pitch technology, the portable turf requires up to 65 per cent less water than other performance-based surfaces. It could revolutionise the spectating profile of the sport, with the idea being that pitches could literally be dropped onto football and rugby stadiums during their off-season.

“This will not just be game changing for us, but for hockey around the world,” said Sally Munday, chief executive of England Hockey, who says the pitch innovation could solve the issue of limited seating at Stratford’s 3,000-capacity Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre, which often has to be extended when hosting major fixtures.

“From a hockey perspective, if we want to host a big event, it means we have to build a massive amount of temporary infrastructure, temporary seats. What this allows us to do is simply go into an existing purpose-built stadium and drop a pitch. We have massive interest from a whole load of other sports and other stadiums, where it could be hugely beneficial for them too.”

The project has been spearheaded by England Hockey in partnership with synthetic surface provider Polytan, which will use the pitch technology at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Sport England and the International Hockey Federation have also supported the scheme, which is aimed at further capitalising on the legacy of the London Olympics and championing the spectator boom that hockey has experienced in recent years.

Since 2012, the number of fans who will have paid to see the sport after Sunday’s double-header gets under way will surpass one million – a significant increase on the 25,000 tickets sold for international hockey events in the 10 years prior to 2012.

Great Britain goalkeeper Maddie Hinch said: “If we can keep these ticket demands being as high as they have been since Rio, then we can do more one-off showcases like we’re doing for this one.

“It’s a fantastic platform for hockey to be played in front of a massive crowd. This stuff was just unheard of years and years ago. I remember going to international games and there were only hundreds of people there, let alone thousands.”

The pitch will also be opened up to local schools and community groups before being transported to Bisham Abbey National Sports Centre, the headquarters for England Hockey and Great Britain Hockey, where it will be used as a training facility.

Munday, who will begin her role as Sport England chief executive in September, has defended the decision to stage Sunday’s event at Harlequins’ 14,800-capacity stadium – just 20 miles west of the Lee Valley – instead of evangelising for the game beyond the capital’s hotbed of hockey clubs.

“What we’ve consistently seen since the London 2012 Games is the massive growth of people wanting to watch hockey live, which culminated in us hosting the Women’s World Cup last summer,” she said.

“We’ve got bags of international hockey that’s going to keep coming back to the UK now that we’re playing in the FIH Pro League.

“If we can get the technology to work the way we want it to, there will be the opportunity to go to other locations around the country, but the priority at the moment is building a relationship with Harlequins, growing the audience and making sure the technology works the way we want it to.”

It takes six weeks to lay the pitch, after needing to flatten the Harlequins’ turf, but the next phase of the project will involve shortening the installation process, which could take up to a week in the future. The artificial pitch is not expected to damage the stadium’s natural pitch ahead of the rugby season, thanks to a key substance – Permavoid – which will enable the grass to keep growing and support drainage.

“We’re not actually worried about the grass this weekend because it’s the off-season,” Munday said. “We know we can protect the grass from the other testing we’ve done, so that hurdle has already been crossed – we already know the structure will protect the grass. What we’re checking is that the whole pitch plays as we want it to.”

However, the pricing of tickets for the double fixture seems to contradict England Hockey’s ambition to make the sport more accessible.

Adult tickets start at £34, while the cheapest child’s ticket costs £11.50. For the best seats, a family of two adults and two children would have to pay £120.

Munday, however, insists the tickets are based on a “whole day experience” with the opportunity to meet Great Britain’s stars after each game, culminating in a day out which is more than just hockey.

“We’re consistently growing our audience,” she said. “If you look at the FIH Pro League matches at the Olympic Park last Saturday, tickets were completely sold out. This is why we’re trying bigger stadiums, because the demand is there.”

Original article here.