YOUR FORUM FOR PLAY, SPORTS UND LEISURE AREAS
In many places, sport policy does not have a particularly good reputation. Instead of creating sensible sporting infrastructure and optimally promoting sport, it is often said that focus in many regions is limited to administration of sports facilities and defence of perpetually limited funds. At the same time, the basic demands on communities have not changed to any great extent over the last years - but definitely over the last decades. Despite this often enormous reform backlog, necessary changes have not been carried out. Apart from the financial aspect, this is due in many cases to a lack of reform will and poorly functioning cooperation between politics, administration and users. Over a period of ten years, many things can accumulate which cannot be resolved with only small changes.
Get users on board
But what really are the current challenges and problems? This question by itself is not easy to answer. All sport administrators and representatives of sport committees certainly know the problems of clubs and facility operators, but the requirements and desires of mass sports and individual athletes often remain in the dark. Sport development planning would naturally be an effective measure here to gain an overview of general requirements and wishes. There is a large number of organisations and companies which provide this kind of community sport development planning and who also include users and operators. This is in general a fundamental challenge for community sports policy makers – to get all those involved on board. Even when good community sport infrastructures are ensured, it is not said that all users are satisfied. Far from it! Including users not only ensures that more information is gained, it also allows cooperative planning and task allocation to be achieved so that major projects can be realised more quickly, more efficiently and often at a lower price, when for example, sports groups or clubs carry out simple maintenance and repair work themselves.
Key word: Prevention
A further challenge for community sports policies are those users who do not yet actively participate in sand exercise offers, but should have the possibility of doing so at any time if they so wish. This group includes the so-called "Couch Potatoes", particularly children and youngsters but also older generations who often consider themselves too old or unable to participate in sport. The key word "Prevention" has been known to young and old alike, however, for some time now. Sport and exercise protect against illness and serve the mental and physical well-being of every individual citizen. This is where communities are challenged to provide the infrastructure for a corresponding range of sporting activities including trend sports as well as age-coordinated exercise opportunities such as motoric or exercise courses. A comprehensive range of sporting activities is not only good for everyone, it also makes a major contribution to the attractiveness of a community.
Cooperation with private commerce
Financing of the sport infrastructure still remains the largest problem in the field of community sport policies. Despite state support as well as the personal contribution of club and association members, there is generally not sufficient funding to allow all necessary and desired projects to be implemented. One factor often avoided is cooperation with local private companies. Why is this? Is it the fear that private commerce interests could profit from public funding by mistake? Or that a dependency on the companies involved could be created? Mutual points of interest should always be considered. Every company has a founded interest in the physical health of its employees. Before they need to become active themselves in keeping their work force fit, financial support for a sports centre is a much simpler solution. The initiative must be generated by members of local politics however. The best way is to gather everyone at the same table and to discuss possible projects and cooperation opportunities in general.
Adaptability
As already mentioned, the problems facing community sports policies are often not challenges appearing short-term, but the decades of reform backlog. Everyone is aware of how quickly times change. Requirements of daily life change just as regularly as the requirements of individual people. While in 1970, the majority of workers were employed in agriculture and manufacturing, i.e. jobs involving physical labour, today these make up only 25% of the workforce. The number of office workers is steadily increasing and with it, the number of people needing sport and exercise in their leisure time. These cannot all be helped by sports clubs on their own and it is a continuing trend. This means that sports polities must not only resolve current challenges, they must also ensure that no further backlog of changes forms in the next years. Despite these many problems and challenges to be overcome to achieve a good sporting infrastructure, it should always be remembered that high-quality and varied sporting infrastructure is an advantage for everyone and therefore, the majority is usually in support of these projects!
