Dome installed at the valley!

cafcfan said:

ValleyGary said:

Weren't we renting that one for something stupid like 15k per week when we were in the Prem?

No, back in 2001 we paid actual money to buy one! My recollection is that despite spending a lot of money on it, it was not looked after and merely folded up and left in a corner of the West Stand car park when not in use - that is most of the time. I guess it died some while ago.

Here's an article about it:



There's a big cover up at the Valley!
12:13pm Tuesday 20th November 2001
IT was only a couple of years ago that Charlton Athletic were considering moving to the Dome now the Dome has come to The Valley!

Last Thursday the Addicks unveiled its latest state-of-the-art pitch protection technology (pictured above), in the shape of an inflatable bubble.

Groundsmen from football clubs across the country flocked to Charlton to see the first Xanadu Dome to be installed at a Premiership club, giving the pitch better protection against frost, snow and waterlogging.

Charlton's head groundsman, Colin Powell, has travelled around the world with general manager Mick Everett in search of the most appropriate pitch protection, and they eventually found the dome at the home of Latvian side Skonto Riga.

Powell said: “We have been trying to get some sort of protection from the weather for some time, because match postponements can have a massive financial impact on football clubs.

“The dome will be a great help in preparing the pitch.

“The great thing about it is its size - we only inflated it up to twenty-five feet high on Thursday, but it can go as high as sixty.

“This means you can continue to tend and cut the grass and, although I obviously won't be encouraging this, the squad could even train underneath it if necessary.”

The concept for the Xanadu Dome stemmed from a fed-up greenkeeper on a golf course, who was constantly experimenting with ways to make his job easier in the mornings.

One night, he covered a green with a sheet and weighed it down, but the air somehow became trapped underneath the sheet and protected the green from a nasty frost that night.

The more modern version is erected by using two blowers to inflate the enormous tent-like cover to one pound-per-square-inch above atmospheric press- ure, keeping the structure in place by ropes and containers filled with water that act as ballast.

“Everything is designed to help the groundsman,” explained Xanadu managing director Julian Richardson. “The material allows 98 per cent of natural light through to the grass and there are heaters attached to the blowers so the inside temperature can be raised if necessary.

“In Latvia, we've measured the temperature inside a dome as three degrees celsius, when the outside temperature has been minus 28 degrees.”

The inflatable bubble, which cost a six-figure sum, can be erected in only four hours by a team of six people and taken down in just two hours.

Areas around The Valley pitch have now been fitted with permanent hooks to anchor the dome in place.

Depending on the winter weather, one of its first uses will be to protect the pitch after the Blackburn game on December 22 until the next home match against Ipswich on New Year's Day.

EastTerrace said:

if so, it just seems a weird thing to do doesn't it? Shop around the globe for state of the art posh tent, 6 years later ship it to New Eltham away from it's main purpose in life.

Henry Irving said:

IIRC it wasn't left in a corner at the Valley to decay.

It was kept and used at Sparrows Lane and it was there it was vandalised by locals climbing over the fence at night.

By that time (2007/8) there wasnt the money to replace it

A-R-T-H-U-R said:

I knew the takeover would move us to a dome.

No more high balls up to kermy now.
Unless they plan to take it off for games.