Manchester City Football Club champions water reuse with Xylem technology
A key part of Manchester City Football Club’s (MCFC) sustainability initiatives is to minimize the use of municipal water to irrigate training pitches. Instead, MCFC irrigates the pitches with captured rainwater and water extracted from a borehole. When the legacy three-pump booster set in the borehole water system became unreliable, MCFC replaced it with a smaller, more effective booster set from Xylem that has reduced energy use by 25%.
At Manchester City Football Club (MCFC), sustainability starts at the source. To keep their world-class pitches in top condition while conserving local water resources, the club captures and reuses rainwater for irrigation, minimizing reliance on municipal supplies and helping secure the communities' water supply.
At the City Football Academy in Manchester, a 12-million-liter attenuation tank lies beneath the pitches and collects both rainfall and irrigation runoff. This reclaimed water, treated with a Xylem ultraviolet disinfection system, provides 70 to 100% of the daily irrigation supply for the training grounds. Even during hot summer days, when as much as 23 metric tons of water can evaporate from a single pitch, MCFC is committed to making sure that every drop is used wisely.
How did Manchester City Football club improve their borehole booster system?
In addition to the attenuation tank, MCFC also draws non-potable irrigation water from a borehole. When the facility’s borehole booster system began to fail, MCFC turned to Xylem, its Official Water Technology Partner, to design a more efficient solution. Instead of a like-for-like replacement, Xylem engineers assessed the system’s flow and pressure requirements and installed a right-sized, high-efficiency booster equipped with the Hydrovar X pump controller. The upgrade reduced energy use and replacement costs by roughly 25%, while improving reliability and reducing dependence on potable water.
A pioneering collaboration between MCFC and Xylem
Pete Bradshaw, Director of Sustainability at City Football Group explains that water stewardship is central to the Club’s sustainability goals: "We recognize the importance of responsible and sustainable water usage, especially considering the size of our football pitch irrigation system. Through the upgrade of our borehole water system with Xylem's latest technology, we are steadfast in our commitment to minimizing the utilization of potable water while maintaining our pitch to the highest standards."
Setting the standard for water reuse in sports organizations
The new booster installation has future-proofed MCFC's ability to irrigate their pitch using non-potable water from the borehole, complementing the primary source stored in the attenuation tank. Manchester City’s integrated water reuse system demonstrates how leading sports organizations can use advanced technology to drive sustainability and protect their communities’ resources while inspiring others to conserve water.