Vipers unveil artificial turf at St Mary’s

New look. The brand new St. Mary’s Stadium artificial turf pictured during the official unveiling at Kitende yesterday. Photo by Ismail Kezaala.

What you need to know:

  • This Friday, new Uganda Premier League entrants Ndejje University will be the first visitors to the upgraded stadium and Mulindwa used the opportunity to warn that he is not ready to see Vipers share it with any other team – ‘because it promotes laziness’.

KAMPALA. The most inevitable question at the St Mary’s Stadium-Kitende unveiling received the most unsatisfactory answer from Vipers President Lawrence Mulindwa.
As he proudly showed off the club’s refurbished ground which now boasts a state-of-the-art artificial pitch, redesigned dressing rooms, top notch dugouts and 20,000 seats, Mulindwa was noncommittal on hefty cost of the project.

“It cost billions of shillings and millions of dollars,” he said.
The stadium turf was a major spot of bother for clubs that visited Kitende last season and in a complete overhaul, Mulindwa opted to go for the Third Generation (3G) artificial grass that has rubber crumb which helps with cushioning and gives the ball a realistic bounce.

“We opted for it because of convenience and the time factor. The league starts this Friday yet the Caf Champions League starts in November implying that the five months from June when we started couldn’t allow us finish in time,” he revealed. According to the former Fufa President, the stadium, opened in February last year has just undergone its second construction stage by embracing new seats, artificial turf, media tribunal, dressing rooms and alternative exit routes.

“After this second phase, we are going to embark on the third phase that includes installing floodlights and later the fourth phase that will have the expansion of the western wing to accommodate more fans,” he added.
This Friday, new Uganda Premier League entrants Ndejje University will be the first visitors to the upgraded stadium and Mulindwa used the opportunity to warn that he is not ready to see Vipers share it with any other team – ‘because it promotes laziness’.

“Clubs and Fufa need to start thinking of upgrading the available stadiums taking Vipers as an example. The national team may come and use the facility but not any other club,” he stressed. “I would have invested money in ventures with faster financial returns but like God, I wanted to turn around the lives of players. This is a facility that will be around for our grandchildren for many years even when am no longer around.”
Before taking the media on a guided stadium tour, Mulindwa hinted on starting a fully-fledged soccer academy.