Next week will see three sporting codes play Eden Park in the span of four days.
A T20 international double header on Friday, a clash between the Blues and the Crusaders on Saturday, and then on Monday the stadium is hosting the FIFA Oceania Qualifier.
It’s a massive undertaking for the grounds staff, involving months of planning.
Eden Park Turf Manager Blair Christiansen told Kerre Woodham that 40 years ago, there was no chance of this tight of a turnaround being possible.
He says it’s an evolution from people, but also the technology grounds staff now utilise.
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Carry Woodham Mornings podcast from News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
He'd be.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
Next weekend if you count Friday as a weekend, and
I do. We'll see three sporting codes play at Eden
Park over four days, three codes, four days, a T
twenty International doubleheader on Friday, Blues versus Crusaders game on Saturday,
and on Monday the FIFA Oceania Qualifier game, hopefully the
(00:33):
All Whites. It is a huge undertaking, particularly for the
ground staff, involving months of planning. Eden Park turf manager
Blair Christensen joins me, now a very good morning to you.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Good morning, Carry How are you very very well?
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Thank you? Could this have been done forty years ago?
Could we have had a cricket match on Friday and
a forty game on Saturday?
Speaker 2 (00:58):
No chance, no chance. We are sort of becoming a
little bit used to this, but three and four days
is exceptional and all different codes, and I guess it's
just an evolution of you know, knowledge from people but
also technology that we now utilize you in venues and
we sort of have demands from multiple codes to be
(01:20):
all playing, you know, simultaneously almost and we've sort of
just got to keep up with that, and you know,
you could be a football fan, you could be a
rugby fan and a cricket fan and at the same
seat in three occasions in four days. It's pretty pretty
crazy good, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
It's amazing and it's a privilege to have all of
those games on at Eton Park. But what does it
mean for your team? Do you have to do the
entire ground or just the pitch or how does it work?
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Sure do so? I have responsibility for pretty much everything
that's green, I guess, and so you know that's wall
to wall both on the outer oval and the main
stadium pitch. But also we have a turf farm with
turf replacement for those occasions when needed. But we've been
planning this now for a number of months. Once we
sort of secured the third event, which was the football,
(02:14):
and we sort of go through and we talked talk
amongst the group, how are we going to deliver it,
what the sort of order of proceedings needs to be,
and how we sort of focus on one particular code
at a time while never sort of omitting the third code.
So that's some significant tasks. We've got a cricket match
(02:34):
on the Friday, that has a cricket pitch in the
middle of the ground, and then at midnight we'll be
taking that cricket pitch out with the audible pitch transporter
and that'll take about four hours, and then we'll move
through the next day Saturday, prepare for Super Rugby, and
then we flip straight to Sunday for football and we'll
have some appraisals and viewings from the teams on the
(02:56):
Sunday and then we played Monday night. So you've got your.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Two farms, so I can understand lifting the pitch up,
I guess you know, cutting it out, lifting it up,
and taking it away. And there's a bit that matches
it exactly that we'll go in the middle for the
rugby and the outer and the outer field stays the same.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Outer field stays the same, yep. But we have a
turf nursery on site here where we bring in another
big tray. So we take the cricket tray out and
we'll put in what we call a sand tray, yeah,
which is actually a replica of the rest of the field,
and then sort of seamlessly goes into the slot and
then with any luck, I'm totally unnoticeable by four hours later.
(03:39):
Good God.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
And when it comes to the football, how does that
What are the pitch requirements for them as opposed or
the field requirements for them as opposed.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
To the rug Pitch requirements for football are very precise.
It's extremely precise, particularly for FIFA. This is qualifying for
World Cup, so people will will be out with tape measures,
they'll be measuring grass height, they'll be measuring white line
with they'll be measuring heights of goalposts. They'll be very,
(04:09):
very precise. So that's a short turnaround from rugby. And
the field dimensions are very different as well, so we
sort of a lot of preparation. The beauty of the
footballer gift is we did have the Women's Football World
Cup most recently and so we're sort of pretty familiar
with their standards and everyone's got a good memory, so
(04:30):
we should be able to lay it on just like
we did in twenty three.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
When you say layer it on, do you mean that
literally that you will be taking the rugby grass out
and putting soccer grass in.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
No, I mean lay it on. In terms of the
delivery standards, expectations are pretty high and we'd like to
think that we can deliver to their expectations as well,
and you know, it's a great opportunity to hopefully qualify
for a World Cup.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Absolutely, so when you talk about the grass having to
be a certain height for FIFA requirements, it'll be easy
enough to cut it, I imagine. But you know we've
got the rugby game on Saturday night. Do you then
cut the grass to their requirements? Is it slightly longer
for the rugby?
Speaker 2 (05:13):
It is slightly longer, but we've also got cricket the
night before, so cricket need the ball rolling pretty fast
on the upfield, So the field will be pretty low,
about sort of thirteen millimeters cutting height, and then we'll
be looking to just come up daily. And so i'd
say by Monday night when we have the football, hopefully
we're at about twenty two which is perfect spec for
(05:33):
them growing at about five mills a day. What, Yeah,
you're kidding me.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
How how do you do you know that you're going
to be able to grow it that fast that quickly
to get to their requirements.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Yep, this is all well practiced. Then, so we'll have
the field at sort of nutritional levels that will allow
that growth rate.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Man that is such a science that is nothing like I imagined.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Yeah, I don't do it on my own I do
if I know, I know, but not a one land band.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
It's just the science of it that's boggling my mind,
you know that.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Yeah, there's some precision. I mean, I think a lot
of industries you don't realize sort of behind the scenes,
you know, the detail that does go into it. And
you know, there's more and more technology, and the expectations
become higher and higher, you know, annually, and so we
sort of keep up with that and just make sure
we can stay current and almost lead it.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
I'd say, wow, that is absolutely fascinating. And what about
the the sponsors and the as you say, the white
lines for all the different respon do they get washed
off or.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Yep, they sure do. So a lot of the the
codes have gone to virtual technology now to broadcasts, and
that's that's really helpful. But still with our three codes,
there's a lot of line marking specific to each game
that we'll have to remove and then replace with the
next event. So there's a bit of an art and
(07:05):
a sign into that. And I've even sort of reached
out to a couple of venues in the country that
do it regularly, and I just want to make sure
our practice is as good as theirs, and make sure
we can get them on and get them off without
too much astle.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
And who are the worst people to host it? Eden
Maga would have to be the concerts, wouldn't it? Do
you do a swant of weep when you people see
people trampling all over your beautiful, beautiful, lovely glass.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
The concerts are colorful, loud, something that I haven't seen
a lot of untilled the last out of four years.
But they're an important part of our business as well,
and so as long as we're all prepared both mentally
and physically for you know, what's to come, we're all
(07:53):
about that. And that's what the turf it plays a
really important role. And so any turf that's damaged from
concerts actually is replaced sort of overnight and with very
short turnarounds from concers straight to say a league or
Super Rugby, without anyone even knowing that there was a
concert there. So again, it's just this utilization of knowledge
(08:15):
and technology now that we're incorporating into sort of daily
business here.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
And I'm keeping you and you've probably got grass to
grow and things to do. But do you roll out
the grass when the constant goers have trampled it to
an early death? Do you roll out the grass like
you're pulling the covers over the ground or.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
So concerts you utilize protection systems, and some of them
are drivable. It allows them to build large stages on
the turf with fork cliffs and cranes and things like that,
and that is damaging to the turf, so that floor
protection will come down, doesn't on the grass first, and
it comes off the ground last, and so that field
area is usually fully compromised, and we actually remove that
(08:58):
from the venue and then we'd replace it with a
replicate turf that we have at the farm, and that's
sort of managed in a way excitactly the same as
the stadium field is, so sort of an invisible changeover.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
And what happens to the poor grass that's been trampled
by over excited forty year olds jumping up and down
to the bands of their youth.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Does it get it heads out to the turf farm,
and does it go to cycle and does it go
to intensive care and can be resuscitated or does it
die depending on the timeline that we have a lot
of the time that dies, but then it gets recycled
as like a top dressing over the rest of the turf,
so it sort of has a long, sort of full life.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
Somebody said, we know when a picture has had a
quick turnaround because the players' uniforms are covered in the
advertising die when they tackle.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Yep, that was the good old days. Yeah, and so
that was absolutely the case. But now you know, with
virtual technology in all spaces of delivery of the events,
it's getting pretty good.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
Now, what a fantastic job. The happiest people who report
self report so that they are you know, people who
work with the land and with grass, you know, the
groundsman and the landscapers.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
As I am, I don't feel like I've worked a
day in my life and I've been here for over
twenty years.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Whow but boy, it must have changed. Do you have
to have a science degree now? To do what you do?
Speaker 2 (10:27):
You have to have a mind that is a problem solving,
but also understand it's kind of an art and a
science at the same time. And so while we try
and deliver, you know, a similar outcome, each time, we
achieve it in a different way. So we can't get
too regimented on the process. We're sort of more focused
on the outcomes.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
How do we have a government like that? And when
it comes to when it comes to you know, having
to be at a certain level, especially for FIFA, is
that going to be the most nerve jangling game for
you over the four days? The three codes in four.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Days, it's I think it's probably arguably the most important
for certain people. And I'd love to see New Zealand
obviously win on the Friday night in the semi final
and then win here on the Monday night in the
final and head the US next year to play in
the World Cup. But you know, there's there's some intricacies
(11:25):
with the cricket pitch preparation and then there's the portable
pitch change over and then the quick turnaround to super rugby.
So each each day has its complexities and but we're
sort of you know, looking forward to it with you know, enthusiasm,
but also you know, we've got to bring our a.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Game and some no dose tab let's. He'll be up
for about forty eight hours, don't you.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Often I miss miss the matches and then take a
snooze through them and then back into it, so I'll
watch it on replay.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
Thank you so much. That is well, I'm absolutely fascinated
and all struck by what you and your team absolutely amazing.
Let's Blair Christians and the Eden Park Tiff manager talking
about preparing the pictures for three codes over four days
next weekend the T twenty International doubleheader on Friday, Blues
Crusaders game on Saturday, Monday, the FIFA Oceania Qualifier. Amazing.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
For more from Kerry Wooden Mornings, listen live to news
Talks at b from nine am weekdays, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Carry Woodham Mornings podcast from News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
He'd be.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
Next weekend if you count Friday as a weekend, and
I do. We'll see three sporting codes play at Eden
Park over four days, three codes, four days, a T
twenty International doubleheader on Friday, Blues versus Crusaders game on Saturday,
and on Monday the FIFA Oceania Qualifier game, hopefully the
(00:33):
All Whites. It is a huge undertaking, particularly for the
ground staff, involving months of planning. Eden Park turf manager
Blair Christensen joins me, now a very good morning to you.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Good morning, Carry How are you very very well?
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Thank you? Could this have been done forty years ago?
Could we have had a cricket match on Friday and
a forty game on Saturday?
Speaker 2 (00:58):
No chance, no chance. We are sort of becoming a
little bit used to this, but three and four days
is exceptional and all different codes, and I guess it's
just an evolution of you know, knowledge from people but
also technology that we now utilize you in venues and
we sort of have demands from multiple codes to be
(01:20):
all playing, you know, simultaneously almost and we've sort of
just got to keep up with that, and you know,
you could be a football fan, you could be a
rugby fan and a cricket fan and at the same
seat in three occasions in four days. It's pretty pretty
crazy good, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
It's amazing and it's a privilege to have all of
those games on at Eton Park. But what does it
mean for your team? Do you have to do the
entire ground or just the pitch or how does it work?
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Sure do so? I have responsibility for pretty much everything
that's green, I guess, and so you know that's wall
to wall both on the outer oval and the main
stadium pitch. But also we have a turf farm with
turf replacement for those occasions when needed. But we've been
planning this now for a number of months. Once we
sort of secured the third event, which was the football,
(02:14):
and we sort of go through and we talked talk
amongst the group, how are we going to deliver it,
what the sort of order of proceedings needs to be,
and how we sort of focus on one particular code
at a time while never sort of omitting the third code.
So that's some significant tasks. We've got a cricket match
(02:34):
on the Friday, that has a cricket pitch in the
middle of the ground, and then at midnight we'll be
taking that cricket pitch out with the audible pitch transporter
and that'll take about four hours, and then we'll move
through the next day Saturday, prepare for Super Rugby, and
then we flip straight to Sunday for football and we'll
have some appraisals and viewings from the teams on the
(02:56):
Sunday and then we played Monday night. So you've got your.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Two farms, so I can understand lifting the pitch up,
I guess you know, cutting it out, lifting it up,
and taking it away. And there's a bit that matches
it exactly that we'll go in the middle for the
rugby and the outer and the outer field stays the same.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Outer field stays the same, yep. But we have a
turf nursery on site here where we bring in another
big tray. So we take the cricket tray out and
we'll put in what we call a sand tray, yeah,
which is actually a replica of the rest of the field,
and then sort of seamlessly goes into the slot and
then with any luck, I'm totally unnoticeable by four hours later.
(03:39):
Good God.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
And when it comes to the football, how does that
What are the pitch requirements for them as opposed or
the field requirements for them as opposed.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
To the rug Pitch requirements for football are very precise.
It's extremely precise, particularly for FIFA. This is qualifying for
World Cup, so people will will be out with tape measures,
they'll be measuring grass height, they'll be measuring white line
with they'll be measuring heights of goalposts. They'll be very,
(04:09):
very precise. So that's a short turnaround from rugby. And
the field dimensions are very different as well, so we
sort of a lot of preparation. The beauty of the
footballer gift is we did have the Women's Football World
Cup most recently and so we're sort of pretty familiar
with their standards and everyone's got a good memory, so
(04:30):
we should be able to lay it on just like
we did in twenty three.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
When you say layer it on, do you mean that
literally that you will be taking the rugby grass out
and putting soccer grass in.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
No, I mean lay it on. In terms of the
delivery standards, expectations are pretty high and we'd like to
think that we can deliver to their expectations as well,
and you know, it's a great opportunity to hopefully qualify
for a World Cup.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Absolutely, so when you talk about the grass having to
be a certain height for FIFA requirements, it'll be easy
enough to cut it, I imagine. But you know we've
got the rugby game on Saturday night. Do you then
cut the grass to their requirements? Is it slightly longer
for the rugby?
Speaker 2 (05:13):
It is slightly longer, but we've also got cricket the
night before, so cricket need the ball rolling pretty fast
on the upfield, So the field will be pretty low,
about sort of thirteen millimeters cutting height, and then we'll
be looking to just come up daily. And so i'd
say by Monday night when we have the football, hopefully
we're at about twenty two which is perfect spec for
(05:33):
them growing at about five mills a day. What, Yeah,
you're kidding me.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
How how do you do you know that you're going
to be able to grow it that fast that quickly
to get to their requirements.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Yep, this is all well practiced. Then, so we'll have
the field at sort of nutritional levels that will allow
that growth rate.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Man that is such a science that is nothing like I imagined.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Yeah, I don't do it on my own I do
if I know, I know, but not a one land band.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
It's just the science of it that's boggling my mind,
you know that.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Yeah, there's some precision. I mean, I think a lot
of industries you don't realize sort of behind the scenes,
you know, the detail that does go into it. And
you know, there's more and more technology, and the expectations
become higher and higher, you know, annually, and so we
sort of keep up with that and just make sure
we can stay current and almost lead it.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
I'd say, wow, that is absolutely fascinating. And what about
the the sponsors and the as you say, the white
lines for all the different respon do they get washed
off or.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Yep, they sure do. So a lot of the the
codes have gone to virtual technology now to broadcasts, and
that's that's really helpful. But still with our three codes,
there's a lot of line marking specific to each game
that we'll have to remove and then replace with the
next event. So there's a bit of an art and
(07:05):
a sign into that. And I've even sort of reached
out to a couple of venues in the country that
do it regularly, and I just want to make sure
our practice is as good as theirs, and make sure
we can get them on and get them off without
too much astle.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
And who are the worst people to host it? Eden
Maga would have to be the concerts, wouldn't it? Do
you do a swant of weep when you people see
people trampling all over your beautiful, beautiful, lovely glass.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
The concerts are colorful, loud, something that I haven't seen
a lot of untilled the last out of four years.
But they're an important part of our business as well,
and so as long as we're all prepared both mentally
and physically for you know, what's to come, we're all
(07:53):
about that. And that's what the turf it plays a
really important role. And so any turf that's damaged from
concerts actually is replaced sort of overnight and with very
short turnarounds from concers straight to say a league or
Super Rugby, without anyone even knowing that there was a
concert there. So again, it's just this utilization of knowledge
(08:15):
and technology now that we're incorporating into sort of daily
business here.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
And I'm keeping you and you've probably got grass to
grow and things to do. But do you roll out
the grass when the constant goers have trampled it to
an early death? Do you roll out the grass like
you're pulling the covers over the ground or.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
So concerts you utilize protection systems, and some of them
are drivable. It allows them to build large stages on
the turf with fork cliffs and cranes and things like that,
and that is damaging to the turf, so that floor
protection will come down, doesn't on the grass first, and
it comes off the ground last, and so that field
area is usually fully compromised, and we actually remove that
(08:58):
from the venue and then we'd replace it with a
replicate turf that we have at the farm, and that's
sort of managed in a way excitactly the same as
the stadium field is, so sort of an invisible changeover.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
And what happens to the poor grass that's been trampled
by over excited forty year olds jumping up and down
to the bands of their youth.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Does it get it heads out to the turf farm,
and does it go to cycle and does it go
to intensive care and can be resuscitated or does it
die depending on the timeline that we have a lot
of the time that dies, but then it gets recycled
as like a top dressing over the rest of the turf,
so it sort of has a long, sort of full life.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
Somebody said, we know when a picture has had a
quick turnaround because the players' uniforms are covered in the
advertising die when they tackle.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Yep, that was the good old days. Yeah, and so
that was absolutely the case. But now you know, with
virtual technology in all spaces of delivery of the events,
it's getting pretty good.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
Now, what a fantastic job. The happiest people who report
self report so that they are you know, people who
work with the land and with grass, you know, the
groundsman and the landscapers.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
As I am, I don't feel like I've worked a
day in my life and I've been here for over
twenty years.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Whow but boy, it must have changed. Do you have
to have a science degree now? To do what you do?
Speaker 2 (10:27):
You have to have a mind that is a problem solving,
but also understand it's kind of an art and a
science at the same time. And so while we try
and deliver, you know, a similar outcome, each time, we
achieve it in a different way. So we can't get
too regimented on the process. We're sort of more focused
on the outcomes.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
How do we have a government like that? And when
it comes to when it comes to you know, having
to be at a certain level, especially for FIFA, is
that going to be the most nerve jangling game for
you over the four days? The three codes in four.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Days, it's I think it's probably arguably the most important
for certain people. And I'd love to see New Zealand
obviously win on the Friday night in the semi final
and then win here on the Monday night in the
final and head the US next year to play in
the World Cup. But you know, there's there's some intricacies
(11:25):
with the cricket pitch preparation and then there's the portable
pitch change over and then the quick turnaround to super rugby.
So each each day has its complexities and but we're
sort of you know, looking forward to it with you know, enthusiasm,
but also you know, we've got to bring our a.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Game and some no dose tab let's. He'll be up
for about forty eight hours, don't you.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Often I miss miss the matches and then take a
snooze through them and then back into it, so I'll
watch it on replay.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
Thank you so much. That is well, I'm absolutely fascinated
and all struck by what you and your team absolutely amazing.
Let's Blair Christians and the Eden Park Tiff manager talking
about preparing the pictures for three codes over four days
next weekend the T twenty International doubleheader on Friday, Blues
Crusaders game on Saturday, Monday, the FIFA Oceania Qualifier. Amazing.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
For more from Kerry Wooden Mornings, listen live to news
Talks at b from nine am weekdays, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio
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