Ciudad Real Madrid, Spain
Paul Burgess, Director of Grounds & Environment, at Real Madrid explains how he uses Intelligent Play to help manage facilities for the world’s biggest football club.
For more than a decade, Paul Burgess has been responsible for the grounds and football pitches at Real Madrid. As Director of Grounds and Environment, Paul manages a team of around 60 staff working across the stadium and training facility.
The world-class training facility, Ciudad Real Madrid, comprises of 8 ½ natural fields, 4 ½ 3G pitches, indoor facilities, and administrative buildings for the club’s workforce.
Intelligent Play is installed on all 12 full-size football pitches at the training ground with Paul explaining: “In recent times, I’ve also been given responsibility for the environmental policy of the club which has meant I need to be more accountable in my decision making. The data from Intelligent Play allows us to monitor use to try and get more out of each pitch and also to control the maintenance of the artificial grass pitches.”
Maintenance is vital for this high-end facility with Paul and his team working diligently to ensure their pitches meet the highest standards for players at all ages and levels across the club. Having data to support what previously came from observations and opinions regarding the status and usage of fields is a clear benefit.
According to Paul: “From a maintenance perspective, Intelligent Play really gives me a chance to make sure the correct amount of maintenance is being done. We’ve definitely seen benefits from the system in terms of tracking how the fields are being used and trying to educate coaching staff to make use of the whole field rather than the same areas.
Intelligent Play is a unique product with no other system on the market quite like it. We’re really pleased to have it on our facility.”
If you could also benefit from having usage and maintenance data from your sports fields, get in contact with us here.
