Data tracking at the Amsterdam ArenA: every week a perfect pitch

Arthur Berends, Company Director De Enk Groen & Golf and together with the Amsterdam ArenA grounds team responsible for the pitch, shared insights related to data tracking and their pitch dashboard during our Pitch Management Workshop.

In total, there are 15 sensors in the pitch, 30 sensors around the stadium and additional sensors for their weather station. The goal of analysing all the data is to support their existing knowledge and to collect data related to pitch quality and climate management to improve their daily operations and guarantee a high-quality pitch.

Multifunctional tools

For optimal pitch care, there are several tools which have been implemented at Amsterdam ArenA including:

• Precision Management & inspection
• Crop temperature
• Heat maps
• Robot mowers
• LED Lighting grass grow systems
• etc.

Moreover, these tools are linked to performance measures such as hardness, moisture, clegg, grip, ball roll and ball stout and are implemented in the pitch dashboard.

Player Pitch Review

Amsterdam ArenA created a ‘Player Pitch Review’ software on which players can analyse the pitch. Questions of the pitch review are linked to ball speed, humidity, height and overall grade of the pitch. Berends mentioned that the best time to receive an honest player review is on training days and not on matchdays as players might be too emotional. However, feedback on matchdays is still important. This data is collected and linked to the digital pitch dashboard.

Even though it is difficult to create the same pitch conditions on both the matchday pitch and the training centre, the grounds teams of Amsterdam ArenA and training centre ‘De Toekomst’ are closely working together to create similar and optimal pitch conditions.

Pitch Dashboard

When implementing certain actions, the grounds team analyses e.g. temperature, EC value, humidity, etc. and determine whether their actions have been successful. Furthermore, the dashboard is useful when preparing for events and learning more about the effect of these events on the pitch quality.

The pitch dashboard consists of:

• Control
• Climate
• Management advice
• Use and circulation
• Forecast
• Log: assignments, performance, pitch use, management, etc.
• Sensor-suite: vitality, performance and quality
• Report 

Overall, the pitch dashboard ensures that the Amsterdam ArenA grounds team have an up-to date analysis and know-how to adjust their work accordingly to the needs of the pitch.

Go to our ESSMA Flickr account for more pictures.

 Learn more about data tracking at Amsterdam ArenA

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