POWERLEAGUE CHOOSES SIS FOR QUALITY SURFACES
An emphasis on quality lies at the heart of the Powerleague Group's success.
The company operates more than 300 all-weather pitches throughout the UK,
purpose-built and operated intensively on a commercial basis.
Facility standards are high, from the well-appointed changing rooms and bars,
to the fully trained staff. But central to success is the quality of the
playing surface itself. As with its other suppliers, Powerleague, which is
arguably the largest UK buyer of all-weather pitches, needed an efficient,
competent and co-operative supplier and found it in SIS (Support In Sport)
Ltd.
SIS can design and build pitches of all kinds, including natural grass and
synthetic surfaces, and so they can offer impartial guidance as to what will
best suit a particular club or facility, at any level of sport.
"SIS really understand synthetic turf," says Jez Hall, "Powerleague's
Operations Director. "Their knowledge of natural turf grass systems is
also key, as they know the standards that must be achieved. They are clearly
experts, offering a full design and build package."
A
recent SIS installation for Powerleague was at Queens School
in Watford, a Foundation School with Special Sports status.
This is a Powerleague pitch with a difference. The company
leases the site from the school and the facility is for dual
use, being available for pupils during the day and open to
the wider community for hire in the evening.
The Queens School site, which opened in February, includes no less than eight
five-a-side soccer pitches and one seven-a-side surface. SIS has designed
one of these with a deeper pile, allowing use as an all-weather rugby training
pitch. Though mainly for football, all the pitches can be used for soft hockey,
basketball and athletics practice as well.
"We have worked with SIS for two years now and it has proved an invaluable
partnership," says Jez Hall. "We work well together to develop enhanced
facilities with a higher than average specification, such as superior fencing
and floodlighting. It's perfect."
The users would agree. The Queens School pupils enjoy the high-quality pitches
for games sessions and lunchtime play, and the surfaces are heavily used
in the evenings by commercial lets.
