YES – Michael Thurloway
Ah the JLD, bane of a goalkeeper’s life. I find that the week between games in the college cup is just about long enough for the scars on your knees and elbows to heal before you open them up anew.
Astroturf is not the ideal surface on which to play football. It’s rough and bouncy, and sliding is prohibited. It also lacks actual football markings. Organisers have made the best of a bad job in years gone by.
But with the huge investment made to York Sport Village, it’s time to move the cup to the 3G. It’s as near to real grass as you can get. The college 3rds league has been playing there all season, and in 12 matches for Alcuin 3rds, I’ve had nowhere near as many scrapes from the surface as in last year’s cup.
Of course a big part of College Cup is the crowds. While some would begrudge the trip to Hes East, there is a free bus which goes straight to the Sport Village. I’m sure the crowds would still flock.
The College Cup is the pinnacle of college sport at York, with no exceptions. It is the most sought after accolade. It should be played on the best possible surface. There can be no doubt that the best surface is the 3G.
NO – Dave Washington
To put it frankly the JLD is the home of the College Cup, the Wembley of college football. Over the years a close association has developed between the two. Moving the beloved competition to the soulless 3G would only rip the heart out of the competition.
Of course the 3G surface would be more conducive to good football, and the players might prefer to play on a surface which doesn’t cause horrible grazes every time you fall over, but the tournament simply wouldn’t be the same.
The 3G is in the far realms of Heslington East, meaning that supporters or interested onlookers would be reluctant to make the long trip to watch their college.
Apart from Roses, there is no sporting event that grips campus like the College Cup, and a large part of that is down to the accessible nature of the JLD which for many people is only a short walk away. The 3G requires a bus ride or a long walk, before you are greeted by a ferocious wind and the road noise of the A64.
If the College Cup moved over to the 3G then crowds would decrease, the atmosphere would be hampered and the whole tournament would be impacted in a negative way.
The 3G is phenomenally expensive to hire out.
In favour of the 3G is clearly the fact that it is a better surface, which is much less likely to lead to destroyed knees in old age (by which I mean when you graduate and sign for Wentworth). It would be ideal but for a couple of small issues:
It is massive – one of the fantastic features of the CC is that 3rd teams (and now even 4ths and 5ths) can frustrate good first teams on the compact pitch in a 60 minute game. If the favourites are truly worth their tag, they still maange to win, but it adds a bit of magic. The 3G pitch would surely see some massive tonkings. It would get miserable after the first few.
I take the point that there is a free bus, but in reality a lot of the support is from people who take an hour off whatever they are doing. An hour becomes almost two if you have to trek out.
Not being able to slide probably improves the standard of play. Probably.