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3 Reasons to Engage Grounds Managers Early in Athletic Facility Design

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About Us In the News

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Brad D'Agnillo

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civil engineering ,New Hire ,Sports engineering ,Sportworks Design

Designing and building a new athletic facility is an exciting project for all stakeholders involved. For most grounds managers, it is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be a part of building a new athletic facility. Day in and day out, they spend hours ensuring the facility is running as expected and their tasks can get granular. They’ve spent many hours on the mower or gator, dreaming of the day they get a new facility and how they would improve it. Grounds managers have first-hand experience fixing the existing facility when issues arise, understand the level of play expected on the field systems, and have intel that can save time and unforeseen expenses for a new facility.   

Three Reasons to Engage Grounds Managers Early in the Athletic Facility Design Process: 

  1. Because of the groundskeeper’s extensive knowledge of the existing facility, equipment, and storage space, designers and contractors benefit from hearing from them at the beginning of the process. Grounds managers know if the facility has the necessary resources to implement the desired amenities or if more resources are needed to make the upgrades possible. This insight is critical as buying new equipment or building more storage after the fact negatively affects the budget.  
  2. They live and breathe your fields, so engaging them to supply input on the upgraded field system can eliminate issues in the future. It also helps all stakeholders understand and plan for more training if it’s needed to keep the field up to industry standards.  
  3. Ground managers have a solid understanding of the schedules and activities that occur at your facility. They can give real examples of how the community uses your facility and ways to keep the integrity once updated.  

Don’t wait to engage your ground managers until the end of the project. You could end up with a mower that doesn’t fit through the storage doors or a field system that can’t be properly maintained.  

Knock your new athletic facility out of the park by including your grounds manager early in the athletic facility design process. Contact our team of sports engineers with any questions about your upcoming project. 

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