Comparison of the Value to the Community of Sports Facility Provision

Abstract
This projects aims were to examine the value to the community, of local sports facilities focusing on military, voluntary, public, and private sectors, and how they benefit from the facilities being available to them. The facilities looked at were Cannons leisure centre, the Mountbatten centre, Thorney Island, and City of Portsmouth Athletics club. The study also examined the scope of users of each unique sector of sport and how the facilities are equipped for their sporting needs and requirements. Two members of management and six users at each facility were interviewed using semi-structured interviews, so that relevant information could be gained and used for the project. The theory of analysis will be qualitative research because there will be no statistical analysis for this project. Instead there will be words and data from the interviews to analyse. The aims were adjusted from the final project and narrowed down in order to develop a far more detailed project and set of results. The results showed the extent to which all four sports sectors provide sport and leisure opportunities for the surrounding community. The project examines the range of users throughout the sectors and looks in depth at the range of different facilities which are on offer. The results are displayed in tables to provide an easy comparison which is viewed as the better way to show the findings of the project. Sports sectors are able to work together and exist under close geographical range, because they attract different users and offer a range of facilities. Portsmouth Athletic Club is dependent upon the Mountbatten centre for its existence, which is commonly found in the voluntary sector. Thorney Island was discovered to be a very untapped sporting resource, with military access only. Cannons Leisure Centre on the other hand, was exactly that and had a very leisurely feel to it where people would happily spend the day using a variety of the facilities on offer. The main issue of the research which was raised was within the military sector, and how beneficial their facilities would be to the community. These are of a very high standard but due to security issues are, in the main used by the military and are a relatively untapped resource.

Introduction
Project Title:
A comparison of the value to the community of sports facility provision within the military, voluntary, public, and private sectors of the sports industry.

In order to understand present day sport and leisure, it is important to have a grasp of sports and leisure activities which have occurred historically. Farmer, Mulrooney, and Ammon (1996.p.3) explain that “the Egyptians, from around 1500BC, promoted sport and physical activities primarily for the military”. In the modern times there are now schemes in place which promote sport for all kinds of people. Four of these sectors that provide present day sports are Military, Public, Private, and Voluntary. There are different sectors of sport which offer a range of different activities which suit a wide variety of members of society. Farmer, Mulrooney, and Ammon (1996.p.5) go on to explain that “as sports grew in size and importance, facilities correspondingly improved. By the beginning of the 20th century many major sport facilities were already in existence”. With such a demand on the sports industry a bigger market was created which enabled these four sectors to survive efficiently.
A set of aims was drawn up for this project, so that the research can pin-point specific areas. One of the aims was to examine the value to the community of local sports facilities focusing on military, voluntary, public, and private sectors, and how customers benefit from the facilities being available to them. This was a primary aim because the users of every facility are deemed to come from the surrounding community, and it was important to see what their views were. Torkildsen (2005.p.92) states that, “Leisure services are claimed by their providers to be based on the needs of the people they are intended to serve”. So each facility is in place because the local community has leisure and sporting needs which should be met. This project evaluates the value of each sports facility to the community, and also the range of users who are attracted to specific facilities.

The fact that a wide range of sports have been present for centuries providing sport and leisure activities to communities, means that the management have the task of making sure the experience meets the users’ needs. Farmer, Mulrooney, and Ammon (1996.p.98) provide the explanation that “sport and entertainment events are unique products that are intangible, perishable, and unpredictable”. This sets out a challenge for all sports sectors because they have to prepare for the predictable and the unpredictable events that will unfold on a day-to-day basis.
With different members of the surrounding community flowing in and out of each facility, preparation and the smooth running of facilities are vital in order to keep people coming back. There are also perishable aspects within each of the four sports facilities. If the facility or certain programs within the sectors, lose their appeal then it is likely that the number of people making use of the facilities will fall and users may even choose to go elsewhere.

Chelladurai (1999.p.237) states that, “a job is a job whether a paid or voluntary worker does it”. All of the personnel involved in the management interviews, are employed in a specific job role within each sector. All of the job roles are important to the survival of each facility, and the voluntary sector is highly dependent on the people who give up their time for no financial gain.
One of these projects aims was to examine the level of staff training within the range of facilities. But when it came down to the interviewing process this aim was considered irrelevant to the project, and deemed as being far too time consuming to focus on.

Gratton and Jones (2005.p.5) explain that research is “more than simply searching for facts”. This project finds the factual areas of this research, and displays them in comparative sections. This project is more than just searching for the facts because it discusses and analyses the findings. This is also why aims were put into place, so that the research can be guided to certain sections of the topic area. The key aim for this project is value to the community for each of the sector’s sports facility. The range of users from the surrounding community is also considered important for this project, and what each facility has to offer the users.
Because this project also focuses on the staff as well as the users, looking at how the staff are trained and how this is of value to the community is deemed as being important. Both the users and management are equally important within this research project because they are both key parts of every sports facility.