Ways to Enhance Your Sports Facility

Following the start of each new year, most sports facilities see a boost in new memberships from people hoping to accomplish their health and fitness resolutions. But how do you attract new members to your recreation center after the motivation of a new year has worn off?

Improving your sports facilities is key to keeping guests coming back again and again. Here’s how to do so by increasing functionality, enhancing your outdoor areas and creating a better overall environment for members.

Advantages of Updating Sports Facilities

When planning for renovations or additions to your sports facility, you’ll notice several advantages as a result:

• More returning visitors: Renovations demonstrate your dedication to the user experience. When sports facilities consistently strive to improve their equipment, programs and other offerings, you attract more guests and keep current members interested in coming back.
• Longer usable time: During hot months, the peak hours of sunlight may discourage guests from using your outdoor areas. Meanwhile, snow and rain can mean more activities need to be moved inside. Specific upgrades can help extend the usable time of your recreational facilities.
• Increased profit: Updates can help provide a year-round solution for sports facilities, leading to more membership renewals and more usable time for guests. Improvements boost the value of your facility and make it more attractive to visitors, increasing the annual profits.
• Improved safety: Regular improvements to your sports facility help keep everyone safe and healthy. You might add shade structures to offer more sun protection, renovate a gymnasium to create separate entrances or update the structures for increased durability.

5 Ways to Keep Your Facility Functional

Functionality is essential for sports facilities. In addition to all of the recreational activities you must accommodate, facilities should have ample room for socializing, dining and sitting. Consider the full user experience before deciding how best to maximize your investments. Creating an ideal experience requires thinking about how everyone will function within the environment.

What are some ways your enhancements can maintain functionality?

1. Transform Spaces for Multiple Uses and Plenty of Equipment

Maximize the potential in each usable space with flooring that will suit several sports events. Large areas can be easily transformed with different equipment and retractable dividers. Quickly swap volleyball nets for basketball hoops, or partition a full-sized court into smaller sections for practices and intramural leagues. When you plan your recreational center with multi-use spaces in mind, you won’t need to invest in new flooring or update room dimensions when your facility’s needs change.

Make sure there’s enough equipment for all guests to use during busy hours of operation. Remember, when you plan to use the same space for multiple activities, you will need sufficient room to set up and store equipment in these multi-use areas. Portable equipment might be a worthwhile investment to help keep your facility functional. Retractable nets and baskets are also valuable, allowing you to quickly transform an area from a basketball court to a meeting space for community events.

2. Consider How Different Demographics Might Use the Space

The different demographics of your visitors can greatly impact your plans for a sports facility. Particular recreational activities attract certain ages and experience levels. At the same time, location and nearby amenities may influence the popularity and necessity of certain sports in your facility. Ask yourself, why do members return to particular facilities? What programs, sports events, equipment, classes and other offerings do they enjoy and use?

Adapt your plans for indoor and outdoor spaces accordingly. Flexible, large-volume facilities with plenty of multi-use areas are the best way to meet the needs of your various demographics. Consider how varsity teams, intramural leagues and leisure sports enthusiasts might each use a particular space. Then, design shared spaces that allow for multiple uses. Remember to gauge community involvement, as facilities that hold big spectator events will need additional accommodations over other areas used primarily for leisure or club activities.

As many settled into the new norm of online learning and working from home, it quickly became clear that living in a virtual world meant losing one thing that just plain works better in a physical one: sports. (Anyone else remember marble races, belly flopping contests, and watching people play video game sports on ESPN as the network scrambled to fill their suddenly empty airtime?) Social distancing and other health and safety precautions were redefining our behaviors, prompting us to take a step back and examine what that meant for sports facilities.

Today, with the kickoff of a new school year, there is an increased confidence to continue forward with new facilities. Here are 6 factors when planning your next project:

1. Creating a safe and enjoyable user experience

The most important concern when designing a sports facility is the user. Creating an ideal experience requires thinking about everyone. That includes the athletes, coaches, and spectators along with the security officers, facility operators, and maintenance crew. 

Providing safe and customized practice and gameplay environments helps motivate athletes and teams for the big event. A well-organized facility that lets spectators move seamlessly from their vehicle or public transport to a clear entry, enjoy the event, and exit the facility quickly allows them to enjoy an exciting and stress-free experience.

The best approach is to keep spectators and student athletes from mixing with each other since athletic events can sometimes be very emotional. An ideal facility has separate home and visitor entries, as well as separate entrances for players. Referees and umpires should have a clear path to a locker room without mixing with any of the groups. Security needs proper visibility and sight lines to allow for easily observing the entire facility.

Behind the scenes, support staff—including concession workers, custodial staff, security, and medical personnel—also need adequate space in the right locations to complete their tasks without impacting the athlete or spectator experience. This can include kitchen facilities and other food-service support space, first aid rooms, and even holding rooms for anyone who gets too out of hand while on-site security waits for backup.