Initially founded in 1880, the club officially became Manchester City FC in 1894. The Club’s footprint on the entire Etihad Campus includes the 53,500 capacity Etihad Stadium, the 7,000 capacity Joie Stadium and the City Football Academy, a training and youth development facility home to the men’s, women’s and academy teams. The Club is committed to smart water management to reach its ambitious goals.
Challenge
Natural grass pitches use up to 23,000 liters of water per day in peak season. Manchester City has long been committed to sustainable water practices, using harvested rainwater and recycling for irrigation in the Etihad Stadium. This innovative reuse strategy has already saved more than 50 million liters of potable water, and the club is aiming to half its use by the end of 2025. Moreover, the club’s goal is to capture and reuse 100% of stormwater runoff in the City Football Academy by mid-2026.
Solution
The Xylem Vue platform integrates information from connected sensors and smart meters to deliver live insights into how water moves around the City Football Academy. This system means the club can make smarter decisions to optimize irrigation and reduce reliance on public water sources by showing when and where water is being used or lost across the 16.5-pitch campus.
Results
The new system provides accurate information on water consumption, its volume, source and destination, enabling smarter decisions to be made. The Xylem Vue platform offers connected data and real-time insights to enable the club to save water, using it more wisely, and protecting supply for the local community. This tool enables the club to capture and reuse rainwater more efficiently for irrigating the natural grass pitch in the Academy through data and analytics.
This project marks a milestone in the club’s ongoing collaboration with Xylem, reflecting years of shared focus on innovation.