The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on sport. At
the elite level we have witnessed the cancellation and postponement of global
events, national leagues and competitions that have caused a crippling
financial burden to the sector. The impact on the sports industry is already
evident with professional players taking pay cuts and organisations that manage
and administer sport declaring huge revenue losses and standing
down staff.
The effects of COVID-19 are also being felt by community
sport, with teams unable to train, play competitively and come together
socially. As a consequence, many clubs are
losing funding through membership fees, social events, food and bar sales and are
eagerly awaiting news that they can re-commence at least some of their
activities.
Even when restrictions are relaxed, community sport will
face further challenges with the impact of COVID-19 expanding well beyond the
period of lockdown. With the rise in unemployment caused by the pandemic, many
individuals and families will not have the disposable income available to pay
membership fees and other associated costs with sport participation. Membership
numbers and in turn funding may therefore be reduced. There is also a possibility
that people are gradually becoming comfortable in their COVID-19 adjusted leisure
patterns and that they will not want to re-commit to club-based sport
participation. One of the benefits of the pandemic for some parents has been
the opportunity to claim back time and reduce stress levels created by modern
family scheduling and taking children from one extra-curricular activity to
another. It may be that parents are also less willing to engage with the
intense commitment required to support their child’s sports participation when
restrictions ease.
So what does the future of community sport look like post COVID-19?
The pandemic represents an opportunity to reimagine
community sport and consider what opportunities are best suited to meet
community needs and align with evolving lifestyles. Pre-pandemic community and
club-based sport particularly was already facing an uncertain future. Some 40%
of the 6,600 young people surveyed (age mean = 13.9 years old) by the
Australian Sports Commission in 2016 had not engaged in organised sport within
the last 12 months. Formal
sport is not necessarily providing the ‘fun with friends’ that young people say
they are looking for (ASC 2017). Club environments also represent a potentially
challenging space for young females and people from marginalised backgrounds
including minority ethnic communities and people with disabilities. Whilst for
many people, club-based sport is simply not providing the flexibility to
participate on their own terms, at their own convenience, amidst time-poor
lives.
In contrast to the pre-COVID-19 decline in formal club-based
participation, informal and non-affiliated sport participation are on the rise.
Among UK adults, a million
more people were active in 2018/19 than in 2015. Yet participation in organised sports
decreased in the same period by over
one million people (Active Lives report, 2019). Self-organised, flexible, local opportunities, including
park sports, park run and fitness activities have been filling the place of club-based participation. Groups of all
ages are now connecting through social media and come together
regularly to participate. They join multi-age, unaffiliated leagues, events and
tournaments where individuals can participate as frequently or as little as
they would like without having to worry about losing their place on the team or
membership costs. For example, the Bayside
Women’s Futsal League in Melbourne is a free weekly informal futsal
competition for women of all ages and abilities, promoted only through
Instagram. It attracts around 100 women and girls each week. There are no fixed
age groups, no set grading of ability and no need to commit to the full
season. Informal opportunities are
appealing because they are affordable, flexible and local. They can also be
more safe and welcoming and less competitive than traditional club settings.
The re-start for community sport post-COVID-19 offers the opportunity
to rethink what might be the most effective way to support ongoing participation
for all community members. There is the opportunity to consider how to support
other models of participation that can complement structured club sport and in
turn, encourage participation growth.
Informal sport potentially offers a flexible and responsive
model, which is able to meet the needs of many residents transitioning out of
lockdown. What is required from the sport sector to harness the potential of
informal sport as a community resource? From a local government perspective,
securing space for informal sport is crucial to ensure that groups have access
to facilities for informal participation. This may require creative thinking of
how to open up existing spaces, for example partnering with schools, working
with established clubs to support shared access and considering ways to manage
the use of space. For example through flexible booking systems similar to what
sports such as tennis have been doing with their Open
Court Sessions. It may require the
development of local equipment libraries, similar to toy libraries, where
individuals and informal groups can hire sports equipment to participate
informally.
We are by no means suggesting that there is no place for traditional community
sports clubs in a post-COVID-19 society. But the pandemic provides a unique
opportunity to re-evaluate the community sport sector as a whole, review
support and investment models, and innovate to open up sport participation and
its associated benefits to a much broader section of the community.
