Rectory Park, Middlesex FA
Based at Rectory Park, George Wells – head of commercial and operations for Middlesex FA – explains how Intelligent Play is used to help manage a maintenance programme for two community 3G football pitches.
Rectory Park in Northolt, London was constructed after funding was granted by the Football Foundation and other local investment partners. Middlesex FA are based at the centre which is home to a number of community football teams and other sports, health and wellbeing initiatives.
Intelligent Play was installed for both artificial grass pitches in July 2018 after being recommended by the Football Foundation. It is used at Rectory Park not only to monitor usage on the fields but also to help maintain the synthetic turf surfaces to ensure they will last for their estimated 10 year lifespan.
The artificial intelligence-based system is designed to reduce the manual administration and data analysis that is often needed when managing sports fields. The data collected from a pitch is displayed in an online dashboard that users have access to for their facility.
Head of commercial and operations, George, explains that: “the traffic light system for maintenance is great as it’s so clear even at a quick glance – green means pitch status is good, amber shows that the surface will soon need maintenance and red means you should be maintaining the pitch and brushing the surface.”
With a team including a centre manager, duty managers, a maintenance manager and various casual staff, having such a clear system lets them all see what needs doing to keep the pitches in top condition every day.
Like many community sports facilities, Rectory Park maintains a sinking fund which could quickly be dissipated if pitch repairs were needed due to incorrect or infrequent maintenance. Using Intelligent Play to stay on top of a suitable maintenance programme for the 3G surfaces is a definite benefit of the system according to George.
The features of Intelligent Play ensure that the dashboard and its data are a valuable resource for everyone involved in managing a sports pitch. From centre managers and duty staff to grounds teams and investors, Intelligent Play delivers accurate information in an uncomplicated format.
As a management tool, reports can be easily generated from Intelligent Play. George explains: “the Reports function makes my life easier because I can simply pull out the same report on a quarterly basis, throw it into my slide deck, and then when I’m presenting the data to stakeholders, it’s really easy for them to absorb.”
For more information about how Intelligent Play works, click here.
