The season has just ended but work is already in full swing at the Valeriy Lobanovskyi Dynamo Stadium. The home arena of White-Blues is actively preparing for the next season. The pitch is undergoing renovation – the old turf is being removed and new grass seed is being sown in its place.
Dynamo Kyiv’s head groundsman Dmytro Zinoviev spoke about the preparation of the stadium pitch for the new season:
– This is planned work that is carried out once every two to three years, depending on the condition of the field. The top layer of grass is cut off and removed using a cultivator. Then sand is added, leveled, and the hybrid Extragrass system that forms the foundation of the pitch is cultivated. After that, the field is covered with sand, seeded, and watered – and in two months there will be a new pitch.
The entire process takes two months – including the removal of the old turf and the seeding. After sowing, there are about one month and twenty days left before the first match. If the weather is favorable and there is no abnormal heat in July, everything will be ready for the start of the season, in the first days of August.
Every two to three years, a major renovation is carried out. The Extragrass system remains in place, while the top layer is removed and replaced with a mixture of sand, organic material, and seed. Next year, no renovation will be required – only routine off-season pitch maintenance will be performed in-house, including overseeding, sand topdressing, and care of the goalmouth areas.
