TRAIL CENTRES FOR OUTDOOR SPORTS NEW KIND OF SPORTS FACILITY TO GET MORE PEOPLE MORE ACTIVE Author Photos
Casper Lindemann, Sports Facility Consultant, Sports Confederation of Denmark Tina Liv, Ulf Elbrønd Drawing Tegnestuen Mejeriet
The trail centres for outdoor sports are being developed with the vision of creating a sports facility for all kinds of sports in parks and natural areas. They bring together many functions in one place in one centre. It is a type of facility that completely rethinks sports communities and brings athletes together in a new way across all kinds of sports, and combines sports associations with self-organised athletes. Activities in nature are booming at the moment. More and more people are using nature as a setting for their exercises. In essence, nature has become the preferred place for adults to exercise. There is however a general lack of sports facilities in parks and natural areas. Many running clubs, orienteering clubs, MTB clubs and cycling clubs meet in car parks, where they only have to make do with tables and benches or a simple shelter as a starting point for their activities. These are simply the only meeting places available in parks and in nature. Some athletes arrange to meet at petrol stations. Here they can wait for each other sheltered from the weather, buy energy drinks, pump up their tyres and wash their bike. But it is not a perfect solution. Petrol stations are often located far away from the activity areas and they do not fit in the scheme for sport clubs. 22
The development project must be inspiring The growing need for sports facilities and sports meeting places in parks and natural areas is the foundation for the Sports Confederation of Denmark (DIF) getting the idea in 2016 to develop trail centres for outdoor sports. Since then, the trail centre concept has become a joint development project together with the Danish Foundation for Culture and Sports Facilities (LOA) and a number of municipalities and other stakeholders. The development project includes concept development and evaluation of the concept by building five very different trail centres in five very different settings, i.e. an urban setting, a rural setting, in a private forest, a municipal park, publicly funded centres and privately funded centres. In this way, the development project comes with sb 4/2021
