Ringwood Community Hub

McArdle Sport Tec and partners TigerTurf construct revolutionary 3G football Pitch.

The Project:

Part of a larger £3.2 million development at Long Lane, Ringwood; the new artificial pitch installation is a joint enterprise between Ringwood Town FC, Ringwood Town Council, and AFC Bournemouth Community Sports Trust (the Premier League Club’s charitable arm), was made possible from funding by the Football Foundation, New Forest District Council and Ringwood & District Round Table.

“More than just a surface”

The Ringwood Town FC 3G football pitch is a pioneering project incorporating recycled artificial sports pitch surfaces in the engineered base layer and infill mitigation kick boards.

70,490 kilograms of recycled plastics have been repurposed into creating a unique TigerTurf Ecocept layer, using 75% of redundant artificial sports carpets, off cuts and trims from new sports pitch installations and the remaining 25% from household plastics diverted from landfill.

In context, the 70,490 kilograms is equivalent to 1.4 million plastic drinks bottles!  In addition, the TigerTurf Trekboards have also been manufactured from 80% of redundant artificial sports surfaces, which is a significant increase from previous versions.

After a couple of years in the pipeline, you must be delighted now this artificial pitch installation is now complete? How do you feel this new 3G football pitch will affect the community and AFC Bournemouth Sports Trust?

“Part of the programme will be for AFC Bournemouth Sports Trust to have a permanent base which we can operate from. The artificial pitch installation will provide opportunities for the local community to become involved in a number of projects operated from the Trust, and also offer ourselves and Ringwood Town the opportunity to raise the aspirations of our players – young and old through using the new facility!”

How important are environmental impacts and sustainability to AFC Bournemouth Sports Trust and how will this impact your environment targets or credentials?

“In terms of our environmental principles, we have projects linked into schools & the community, promoting climate change awareness, being more energy efficient and choosing more sustainable alternatives.

This artificial grass pitch is part of a larger development including the next phase of constructing a more environmentally eco pavilion incorporating solar energy.  

Our legacy is to ensure our impacts and choices we are making, lead to a sustainable future for the next generations.”

McArdle Sport Tec were delighted to be involved in this development with our long-standing partners TigerTurf.

Our company values are based on three main pillars: Fairness, Best Practice and Collaboration, from a clients perspective, how did you find working with our company?

“Really good from start to finish! From the initial tender through to construction, the project has involved a number of partners; it is fair to say that everything on-site has been efficiently managed, McArdle’s have met all the time scales and delivered the artificial football pitch to a high-standard – and we can’t wait to get participants using the new facility.”

Are there any areas we could improve on?

“No, everything was well organised and efficient throughout!”