The redevelopment process of the St. Mary’s Stadium, Kitende playing surface is expected to be completed by the end of August 2018, according to Vipers Sports Club director Lawrence Mulindwa.
“The work has progressed well and we expect it to be complete by the end of August 2018,” Mulindwa stated.
For starters, the works kicked off as early as the 2017/18 season climaxed in May 2018.
The surface is being transformed from natural grass to astro turf (synthetic).
This follows a decision by Vipers Sports Club management to further improve on the playing surface at the over 25,000 seater facility.
It should be noted that at one moment, the football continental governing body, Confederation of African Football (CAF) in a memo to Federation of Uganda Football Associations (FUFA) advised that the management at St Mary’s Stadium must improve its surface if the club was to be allowed to host continental games at the facility.
This arose following complaints concerning the bounce of the ball, its movement as well as drainage issues for the stadium surface.
Vipers, who will represent Uganda at the CAF 2018/19 Champions League intend to use the St Mary’s Stadium to host their home games for the continent as well as the domestic league matches.
At the moment, the grass has been long removed, the ground leveled, graded and a firm foundation laid with hard core stones and concrete.
Soon, the whole tedious process of laying the turf will commence and it will last for 13 days before adding the friction rubber molecules.
The estimated amount of expenses for the whole project is believed to cost Shs 500M, including labour.
Already, Uganda has two standard astro turf playing fields at the FUFA Technical Center in Njeru as well as at the StarTimes Stadium, Lugogo, all secured with special financial support from FIFA.
The other small 6-aside astro surface play grounds are found at Buwate (Ntinda), Busega, Munyonyo (Bayern Arena) and Kisenyi (International Futsal Courts, Kampala).
