Features

It's estimated that the cost of restoring the ground could run into millions of pounds, as the club try and get it ready for the start of the Championship season in August.

The ruined Hillsborough tunnel is removed

Chief executive Kaven Walker gave a tour to our sport reporter Seth Bennett:

"It's like the rest of South Yorkshire, we were affected seriously by the floods. The North Stand operation in terms of the ticket office, the shop and the sports hall are devastated," said Walker.

"All was constructed on a timber floor and it was all under water. The floor has had to come out, the supporting walls need to come out.

The dressing room after the flood

"I doubt the North Stand will be open for the Birmingham game because we've got significant damage on the ground floor, but we're hopeful the North Stand will be ready for Wolves [19 August].

"Everything's geared for the 4th August which is the first game against Birmingham. Obviously people want to purchase the away shirt, and we've got the new home shirt launch that we'll probably have to delay.

"Everything wont be sorted by the Birmingham game, the things that we need sorting will be sorted. The pitch will be ready, the playing areas will be ready.

Work on the pitch is underway

"The sponsor's lounges, the Riverside Suite, the directors areas, they will not be ready for Birmingham.

"We're in the process now of relocating the ticket office into what was the sports hall, and we're governed by how quick the contractors can work.

Tickets

"We are hoping we will have the retail operation working by next week and are hoping we can have the ticket operation open next week too."

Work underway to build the temporary ticket office

"Some fans are not very understanding of the situation we're in, probably 'cause they're not aware of the damage that we've received here.

"We've got people here working 24-hours a day to get everything ready in time for the Birmingham game and get the ticket office open so they can start purchasing tickets for away games.

"A substantial number of season tickets were sold prior to the disruption, some postal applications have been damaged in the flood, we don't know how many or whose they are. We've got to wait 'till our systems are back up and running."

The pitch

So the old pitch is gone.

In normal circumstances a football pitch is re-seeded, as Hillsborough was. But then the floods hit and the decision was made to It costs over £100,000 to lay a new pitch like this one.

The man in charge of relaying Hillsborough's turf is Carl Pass whose Sheffield-based company lays sports turf.

9000 square metres of turf was shipped over from Scunthorpe in 30-odd wagons.

The individual rolls of turf measure 1.1 metres x 8 metres x 40mm, and iIt's natural grass - the same stuff that people put on their gardens.

As far as Carl is concerned Wednesday's pitch will be ready for the start of the season - the first game against Birmingham on 4th - as long as the club can get the rest of the stadium sorted...

Listen to Toby Foster's interview with Carl Pass: