News

Football participation has bounced back since lockdowns were lifted

Team sports lead recovery in post-COVID participation levels

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Team sports are leading the slow recovery in physical activity levels in England. Data from Sport England’s latest Active Lives Adult Survey, covering the period from November 2020 to November 2021, shows that weekly physical activity levels are recovering slowly following the large drops in participation numbers caused by the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.

Team sports participation numbers have bounced back close to pre-pandemic levels with players returning to grassroots clubs as lockdown measures were lifted.

Football saw the number of people playing regularly increase by 2 per cent across mid-July – midSeptember 2021, with cricket (+0.3 per cent) and basketball (+0.3 per cent) also among those to have seen people returning to play.

In total, 61.4 per cent of the adult population in England are now deemed physically active.

IN BRIEF

Alexander Stadium works completed

Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium has been handed over to Birmingham City Council, following the completion of a £72m redevelopment project. Birmingham 2022 has now taken up tenancy and will turn the stadium into a 30,000seat venue hosting the athletics competitions at this year’s Commonwealth Games.

Wakefi eld stadium work to begin

The home of Wakefield Trinity is set to undergo a major transformation in the next year, with the stadium’s East Stand being completely rebuild as a 2,500-seater stand. The North Stand terrace will also be given a significant makeover during the works, which are set to get underway on 4 July.

Goodison Park demolition approved

Liverpool City Council has approved plans to demolish Everton FC’s historic Goodison Park stadium. The club will replace the venue with a mixed-use complex that will “celebrate the legacy” of the club. Everton is set to move to its new Bramley-Moore Dock stadium in 2024.

The funding will see 78 organisations receive investment

© SPORT ENGLAND

© SPORT ENGLAND

Sport England reveals details for £360m funding

Sport England has revealed details for a £360m investment round, which will see 78 organisations receive funding towards their projects to get people more active. The funding comes on the back of an initial £193m investment in 43 partners that Sport England announced in March. The latest round brings the total funding dished out by the grassroots organisation to more than £550m across 121 partners.

The organisations currently receiving funding range from NGBs and leisure operators to charities and other industry bodies, with each given investments for up to five years. Among those to receive funding in the latest around are The Football Association (£26.1m), Basketball England (£8.58m), Sport for Confidence (£1.34m), UK Coaching (£10m) and the Youth Sport Trust (£17m).

Sport England CEO, Tim Hollingsworth, said: “At the heart of our strategy is a focus on tackling inequalities to help everyone get active – no matter what their background is. We cannot do this alone, and that’s why we’re building a movement of partners.” To read more about Sport for Confidence, one of the new partners receiving funding, see pp. 52

PEOPLE

ARENA GROUP

Gareth Male

Arena adds Gareth Male to team

Arena Group is expanding its specialist stadia seating team to support a growing client base in the UK market. The company has appointed Gareth Male as Stadia Seating Manager, a role which will see him extend client relations to deliver permanent fixed seating along with safe standing barrier solutions for future stadium refurbishments and new builds.

Jon Turnbull joins S&C Slatt er

SAPCA member S&C Slatter has appointed Jon Turnbull as its contracts manager. With 15+ years of experience in the sports building industry, Turnbull joins S&C Slatter from fellow SAPCA member SIS Pitches. In his new role, he will work closely with S&C Slatter’s team of site managers and site supervisors to source and organise sub-contractors.

Industry bodies met with MPs in April

Swimming pools ‘under threat’

Physical activity sector bodies have warned that the huge increases in energy prices pose a ‘clear and present threat’ to swimming pools. Figures from ukactive show that the total energy bill for the leisure sector has risen from £500m in 2019 to between £1.0 – £1.2bn for this year. Energy cost increases of such magnitude – between 100 -150% – are already forcing pool owners and operators to increase prices and consider closures.

Swim England and other industry representatives attended a meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Swimming in Westminster in April. They called for the government to work with them to deliver the support needed to ensure swimming pools can continue to provide services.

1Life’s mental health campaign

To coincide with Mental Health Awareness Week in May – and ahead of Men’s Health week in June – 1Life has launched an initiative to support men struggling with mental health at its Cotlandswick Leisure Centre in St Albans.

The operator is using weekly sports sessions – including football, dodgeball and boxing – to enable and encourage men over the age of 18 to get more active and to speak openly about their mental health.

Figures released last year show that approximately one in eight men suffer with mental health problems, although there is often a stigma surrounding the issue so the real figure could be even higher.

For three sessions a month attendees will play 90 minutes of sport with regular refreshment breaks to have 1:1 conversations about their mental health with coaches. The fourth session includes an hour of sport followed by a 30-minute open discussion.

The project mixes sports sessions with open conversations

© TOMO WORKMAN PIXABAYPIXABAY

New Sport England funding looks to encourage innovation among NGBs

Sports bodies are being encouraged to use innovative, non-traditional or digital ideas to drive participation through a £6.5 million investment by Sport England. The funding is part of the grassroots body’s £35m commitment to creating a lasting national impact from the Birmingham 2022

Tim Hollingsworth

Commonwealth Games and will be split between the 21 national governing bodies involved in the Games.

Each NGB will receive up to £500,000 and the fund will focus on areas in Birmingham and the West Midlands, in addition to parts of London, Manchester and Bristol. NGBs will also be required to participate in an Innovation and Digital Accelerator programme, run by CAST, which will give them access to expert support and help them with their plans.

The funding was launched by PM Boris Johnson

Tim Hollingsworth, Sport England CEO, said: “Today’s funding is an opportunity for us to work innovatively with sports and to build a national activity legacy targeting the people who need support.”

WWW.BIG-SISTER.CO.UK

The Big Sister initiative combines online resources with practical support

Big Sister campaign breaks down barriers

A new programme looks to help teenage girls find and reclaim the joy of sport and exercise during puberty. Big Sister provides girls with a range of resources and support created and shaped by other girls.

Teenage girls are being encouraged to visit the Big Sister online digital hub – (www.big-sister. co.uk) to access free content, support, and practical advice from peer mentors and also addresses the stigmas and gender stereotyping which can prevent girls from leading happy, healthy and active lives.

Aiming to help prevent girls from slipping into a lifetime of inactivity, the Big Sister programme has formed partnerships with Places for People and schools and community groups to help inspire girls to get active through their local leisure centres.

SIS becomes fi rst sports surface company to become B-Corp

SAPCA member, SISGroup, has become a B-Corp certified company – the first sports surface firm to achieve the accolade.

B-Corps (which stands for Beneficial Corporations) voluntarily meet high standards of social and environmental performance, legal commitments and transparency.

In order to gain B-Corp accreditation, SIS undertook an assessment process alongside the BLab verification team, addressing all aspects of its business practice. Achieving the status also requires legally binding commitments – such as taking responsibility to place the interests of workers, the community and the environment alongside shareholders.

George Mullan, CEO of SIS, said: “It has taken two years to achieve this milestone, but it is only the beginning for us. Our commitment is to change how sports surfaces are delivered globally by utilising sustainable materials, delivering a positive impact in communities and ensuring our employees are active partners in the company.”

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SIS specialises in the design and delivery of sports surfaces

UK SPORT

The policy covers all Olympic and Paralympic NGBs

UK Sport updates Eligibility Policy

UK Sport has published an updated version of the Eligibility Policy that applies to all Olympic and Paralympic NGBs in receipt of funding. The Eligibility Policy was first introduced in 2013 and provides a framework for UK Sport to uphold the “highest ethical standards of behaviour” by those in receipt of funding, including referring cases to an independent Eligibility Panel where there are alleged breaches.

Included within the update to the policy is the ability for decisions made by the Eligibility Panel to now be published on a case-by-case basis. This would be particularly relevant where it is strongly in the public interest and helps to maintain trust and credibility in the high-performance community.

FIH adds sports lighting to its Quality Programme

https://sapca.org.uk/guide/codes-of-practice/ The International Hockey Federation’s FIH Quality Programme was first launched in 2015 to help raise the overall standard of the sport’s venue infrastructure. With an initial focus on the playing surfaces, the programme has since expanded to include a range of field and sports equipment.

Most recently, the FIH added sports lighting for outdoor hockey fields to the programme.

FIH says the expansion – called FIH Approved – is a natural progression for a sport that aspires to high levels of professionalism across all levels of the game.

In November 2021, SAPCA member Midstream Lighting became the first company to be awarded the status of FIH Certified Lighting Supplier.

£1.6m indoor tennis project gets under way in Moray

Work has begun on the first tennis facility to receive investment from the new Transforming Scottish Indoor Tennis fund (TSIT). A project to build a new £1.63m facility in Elgin secured investment worth £1.12m from TSIT, a fund delivered in partnership by sportscotland, the Lawn Tennis

Scott Lloyd

Association (LTA) and Tennis Scotland. Moray Sports Foundation will contribute the balance of £511,000 towards the new centre.

The new four-court facility, managed by Moray Sports Centre, will provide players in the local area with year-round access to indoor tennis in an affordable and inclusive space.

Scott Lloyd, LTA CEO, added: “More indoor facilities are absolutely crucial to our ambition to open up tennis to many more people, and so it is fantastic to see work start on this milestone project in Scotland.

Work has started on the new £1.6m facility

“The centre will be a valuable addition to the existing network of 89 community indoor tennis centres across Britain that play a pivotal role in supporting the health of people in their local communities.”

LTA takes over Nott ingham centre – plans major works

The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) and Nottingham City Council have signed an agreement for the LTA to take over the long-term lease and management of Nottingham Tennis Centre. As part of the deal the LTA will provide significant investment to redevelop and upgrade the centre.

The centre has eight indoor courts, 19 outdoor hard courts and 13 grass courts, including its show court. LTA has secured a 150-year lease on the site and took over operations on 1 May.

Redevelopment works will include the re-surfacing of the outdoor hard courts, upgrading of outdoor floodlights, new fencing installed around outdoor courts and an upgrade of the existing “air bubble”, which covers three courts.

LTA has pledged to invest in improving the centre’s facilities

The multi-activity ballcourt can host a number of sports

Playinnovation creates community hub for Newham

SAPCA member, Playinnovation, has helped transform an unused space into a thriving community hub in Newham, East London.

The new multi-activity ballcourt in Alma Street – which will be capable of hosting a number of sports and activities from football through to basketball and netball – includes art design basketball backboards, four of Playinnovation’s patented target games and Playinnovation’s signature white “Hype” combi goals with sensory basketball backboards in pinks and yellows to reflect the sunshine from different angles. The project is at the heart of the Greener PLAYINNOVATION Together initiative, a project designed to help tackle social and environmental inequalities through community action.

Greener Together is a partnership between local residents, environmental charity Hubbub, the Mayor of London, Ten Years’ Time and Afterparti.

Playinnovation founder, Marco Boi, said: “We’ve created a space in which all young people, regardless of age or ability, will feel confident to play sport and to exercise. By doing so, we’re helping to tackle the social inequalities in the area by providing the community with a hub for everyone.”

© PLAYINNOVATION

‘Very diff erent’ fund helping Welsh grassroots

Burying low-hanging power lanes underground and a project to remove poisonous algae from a swimming lake are among the initiatives to benefit from ‘A Place for Sport’ funding in Wales. Launched in 2021, the fund offers up to £15k worth of investment to projects designed to help community clubs and organisations to improve the overall experience of grassroots sport.

As well as supporting some unusual projects, the way the funding initiative works is nontraditional too. While up to half of each investment is provided by Sport Wales and public funding, it also relies on crowd-funding.

“It’s a very different fund to anything offered previously in Wales, as it requires clubs to raise at least half of the money themselves by crowdfunding via the Crowdfunder website,” says Owen Hathway, Sport Wales’ Assistant Director for Insight, Policy and Public Affairs. “We trialled A Place for Sport for six months and are pleased to now be extending it for the next year.

“Clubs across the country have created some really appealing crowdfunding campaigns that have drawn support from well over a thousand people.”

Some of the projects also delivered environmental improvements

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© LONDON BOROUGH OF BARKING AND DAGENHAM

Central Park is set to undergo signifi cant improvement

£1m park works aided by soil importation initiative

Work has begun on a project to deliver £1 million worth of improvements to Central Park in Dagenham.

What makes the project innovative is its funding model. The works will be paid for largely through income received from the importation of 230,000 m3 of environmentally clean soil, which has been removed from other build projects within the M25 that would otherwise end up in landfill.

The project, commissioned by Barking and Dagenham Council and delivered by Alliance Leisure Services, in partnership with Golf Leisure Experts (GLE), is expected to take two years to complete.

Work will see the park’s community-use tennis courts being refurbished and the creation of a new ‘story telling area’ (or amphitheatre), capable of hosting an array of events and performances.

Swim England receives legacy project cash to fund participation

Swim England has received a share of £6.5m to help diverse and disadvantaged communities learn to swim as part of a Commonwealth Games legacy project.

The cash injection is part of Sport England’s £35m package of investment to make this summer’s Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games a success and create a lasting national impact.

Swim England will use digital and community engagement to tackle issues of water safety and help youngsters learn to swim – as well as recruiting swimming teachers from diverse backgrounds.

Swim England will also pilot innovations in ‘swim lesson gamification’ and use a digital campaign and toolkit to upskill and educate swimming clubs on inclusion.

Jane Nickerson, Swim England CEO, said: “A home Commonwealth Games offers a once-in-ageneration opportunity to inspire a huge audience and this funding will be a vital starting point to help us tackle inequalities.”

© SWIM ENGLAND

The funding will look to fund e orts to tackle inequalities

© RFU

England won the 2022 Six Nations

England to host women’s RWC

England has been named as the host location for the women’s Rugby World Cup 2025. For Rugby World Cup 2025, the RFU and host partners World Rugby, plan to adopt a multicity and multi-region approach to delivering the tournament. This will be the first time that the tournament will be made up of 16 teams and the hosting model will facilitate great opportunities for people living in different parts of the country to attend, promoting rugby and enhancing participation in the sport nationwide.

According to England Rugby, female participation in the country has grown from 13,000 to 40,000 registered players in clubs, with a growing pipeline of girls playing in schools, colleges and universities.

Schmitz focuses on circular economy and sustainability

https://sapca.org.uk/guide/codes-of-practice/ SAPCA member Schmitz Foam Products is responding to the need for more sustainable practices by focusing on a circular economy model.

The company has adopted the ‘3 R’s of Sustainability’ approach, which is based on “reducing, reusing and recycling”.

To support the drive, Schmitz will install an in-house shock pad washing device later this year. The equipment will help the company recycle more products and, as a result, better serve the market for end-of-use shockpads.

Schmitz Foam Products supplies a range of shock absorption and drainage products, which are manufactured under the ProPlay trademark.

So you want to redevelop a ballcourt?

Great sports and play facility projects begin with great ideas. Especially if those ideas come from the end-users

Redeveloping an ageing facility can be a daunting prospect. For one, there are so many things to consider. What should you replace it with? Should you go with a similar layout as before and simply renew what’s there? Or completely change the design and make space for new facilities?

You’ll also need to sort out all the technical aspects of the project early on. What are the ground conditions under the playing surface – will it need replacing too? Do you need new lighting? What about fencing?

As with any facility development, your starting point should be to create a strong project brief as early as possible. This should include the exact sporting, play and nonsporting needs – including access. It’s a good idea to consider whether there needs to be a business case for the facility too – are there certain clubs/societies playing certain sports you want to accommodate for rent?

The ballcourt includes games which promote wider learning and skills Listen to your users

But while all of the above are important considerations, there is one aspect that we at Playinnovation feel goes above all else in the early stages of deciding on the nature of your new facility – to engage with your partners. And by partners, we mean the end-users. Yes – the children, the young people and the mums and the dads (and other carers, of course).

Talk to them. Consult them in some way. They are, as facility users, your ‘consumers’. What would they want to see included? Which sports would they like to play? While it’s impossible to please everyone, a well-managed consultation will give you an overview of what the surrounding community requires – and what it wants.

This is the part of a project journey that we, as a company, are most passionate about. Listening to, understanding and considering families – and ensuring their needs are at the heart of the project. For us, it is the only way to create inspiring sports facilities and playgrounds for children, young people and families to thrive, learn and bond in – and for visitors to return and feel inspired.

Think about making decisions based on how the end-user (the child, the family, the shy child, the disabled child, etc.) will feel. Then use that as your guide and seek out designers and manufacturers not because they are cheap, but because they are innovative. Do that, and everything else – all the technical stuff – will fall into place.

The Alma Street project in Newham was designed in partnership with the local community

Putting the vision into practice

One of the projects that exemplifies this approach is the recent transformation of a disused ballcourt into a thriving community space in Newham, East London. Working together with local residents, Playinnovation completed an incredible refurbishment of two previously unusable ball courts and a central activity zone just a stone’s throw from the Olympic Village – in time for the 10-year anniversary of the London 2012 Olympics.

The new playzone includes four of Playinnovation’s patented target games, art design basketball backboards and Playinnovation’s signature white “Hype” combi goals with sensory basketball backboards in pinks and yellows to reflect the sunshine from different angles.

The new multi-activity ballcourt in Alma Street – which will be capable of hosting a number of sports and activities from football through to basketball and netball – is at the heart of the Greener Together initiative, a project designed to help tackle social and environmental inequalities through community action.

Greener Together is a partnership between local residents, environmental charity Hubbub, the Mayor of London, Ten Years’ Time and Afterparti. The pioneering, community-led project brings residents and local authorities together to take climate action and create a greener, healthier, and more connected neighbourhood.

During planning, Playinnovation listened to what the community needed and wanted. The end users – young people and their families – played an intrinsic role in deciding what the facility would look like. Thanks to this process, Alma Street is a space in which all children and young people, regardless of age or ability, will feel confident to play sport, be active and exercise. As a result, the ballcourt and play zones help to tackle the social inequalities in the area by providing the community with a space for everyone. Want to know more? Get in touch +44 (0) 20 3409 5303/Email: contact@playinnovation.co.uk ●

My primary aim in my professional life is to persuade everyone that, when it comes to creating sports or play spaces for towns, schools, communities or even private enterprises, people should feel inspired to think about it from a position of freedom and creativity Marco Boi, founder, Playinnovation