SPORT IN CRISIS
Grassroots is suffering
by TurfPro Editor, Laurence Gale MSC, MBPR
 
Laurence Gale MSC, MBPR

There is no doubt that sport has been one of the hardest hit sectors, in terms of lost revenue, throughout this pandemic.


Sports clubs across the UK have seen a dramatic downturn in income generation during the last year and for some, they may not come out of this crisis unscathed in more ways than one. 


The Government has tried to help, but they only have limited resources available. It is now down to the clubs to find ways of reinventing themselves and getting back to normal as quickly as possible.  

 


Many of the major sports governing bodies funding streams have also been decimated by the pandemic, with millions of pounds of lost income and many job losses.  I fear that this means in the next few years, funding schemes will be at an all-time low, thus leaving many clubs vulnerable and exposed to the threat of closure. 


It will be interesting to see how clubs and their sport’s governing bodies cope. Talking to a number of clubs they are all keen to get back to some sort of normality, but not totally sure what the outcomes will be, especially in terms of how many of their members will finally return to active sport. No doubt some will have found other activities and pastimes and may not be able to return to their clubs in the way they did before. 

 

 

Income decline

 

Participation for certain sports has been on the wane for a number of years, with many clubs not fielding as many teams as they had done in the past. Also, many members are not spending as much over the bar. 

 

Bowls is a prime example of a sport struggling and experiencing a steady decline in clubs’ membership and participation. This has been largely due to the sport having an older age group of participants who in the main tend be sixty-five plus, who after several years find themselves no longer active enough to compete or indeed help as a volunteer groundsman. This is coupled with the fact that clubs are finding it difficult to recruit younger members. 


A decline in members and the fact that many clubs’ membership fees are so low that they can barely raise the money needed to operate, has meant forced closures and greens lost.

 


However, for me, one of the biggest challenges for sports clubs is what should they be charging for annual membership? Many clubs are still charging a paltry sum. Anything less than £100 year is in my opinion an insult to the club. Take a typical bowling green club with a single green to maintain, the current annual greens maintenance costs are likely to be around £10,000.  Therefore a club with 100 members would have to pay at least £100 a year each just to cover the cost of maintaining the green.  


Most bowling club members rarely pay anywhere near this figure. Usually it’s something more like between £50-80 a year. For many other grass roots sports clubs, their annual memberships are also generally lower than what they should be.

 

Regeneration is essential


In general, I have witnessed an overall decline in sports participation across a number of sports, over the last twenty years. Clubs that use to run four plus teams, now rarely field two teams. This has been brought about by the fact that people’s time has been eroded away, with far too many other distractions and expectations of family life.  Back in the day, players especially rugby players used to spend two hours playing a game of rugby and ten hours in the bar! However, having said all that, today’s clubs have had to change and are now more inclusive providing a whole family experience. Of which, in my opinion, will be the way clubs need to go to survive. 


If there is one thing that has come out of Covid, is the importance of family life and being healthy. So for me these community sports clubs are an essential service for staying healthy and being active.


I would like to see the government put more money into grassroots sports. They are so important in nurturing the next generation of sporting stars. Far too much money is being spent on elite sport with very little filtering down to the lower leagues. Last week’s ill-fated breakaway European Super League, is a fine example of the greed at the top. 


We are simply not seeing enough money filtering down to the grassroots.

 

This needs to change. 

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