Membership of English sport clubs: A dynamic panel data analysis of the trickle-down effect

Investments in elite sport and major sporting events are often justified in sport policy by various rationales, one of which is a ‘trickle-down’ effect whereby successful athletes have a positive impact on general sport participation rates. This effect is likely to be greater when hosting events, as home advantage can contribute to sporting success. The purpose of this research is to explore the possibility of a trickle-down effect on sports club membership in the United Kingdom in the context of the 2012 London Olympic Games. Secondary data were collected on sports club membership levels in 33 sports, over a ten-year period, from 2007–2016 (n = 330). Sporting success was measured by the number of gold medals won in international competitions, the number of major sport events hosted in the UK, and the results of the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year award (SPOTY). The outcomes of a dynamic panel regression analysis show a causal relationship between the trickle-down effect and sports club membership over a four-year period

Sports participation as an investment in (subjective) health: a time series analysis of the life course

Background: The causal relationship between sports participation, as physical activity, and subjective health is examined accounting for the London 2012 Olympic Games, which it was hoped would ‘inspire a generation’ by contributing to public health. Improvements to weaknesses in the literature are offered. First, stronger causal claims about the relationship between sports participation and health and second, the actual minutes and intensity of different measures of participation are used. Methods: The rolling monthly survey design of the annually reported Taking Part Survey (TPS) is used to create time series data. This is analysed using a time series modelling strategy. Results: Increases in the level of subjective health requires accelerating sport participation, but no effect from the 2012 Olympics is revealed. Reductions in the level of health are brought about by increases in sports participation in early adulthood, although this gets reversed in middle age. However, a reduction in health re-emerges for older males compared with females. Conclusions: For the population as a whole, sport can contribute to health, with diminishing impact, but impacts vary across the life course and genders. Policy accounting for these variations is necessary. Policy aspirations that London 2012 would produce health benefits from increased sports participation are misplaced

The performance of local authority sports facilities in England during a period of recession and austerity

This paper examines how public sport facilities in England, which are dependent on subsidy from local authorities, have performed during a period of recession and austerity. Using data derived from Sport England's National Benchmarking Service (NBS), we track the changes in a series of key operational performance measures to investigate how local authority sports centres have fared between 2005/06 and 2015/16. Four dimensions of performance are analysed, namely: access; finance; utilisation; and, customer satisfaction. The study includes 1,116 sports centres in the time frame under review. Our results show that the overall financial efficiency of English public sport facilities has improved significantly in the face of a reduction in local authority expenditure on sport and leisure services. There appears to be a business model in the sector that includes outsourcing management and raising activity charges, which has been accompanied by higher levels of customer satisfaction with price-related service attributes and with the overall experience of using a facility. A possible explanation for these findings might be an improved quality of provision and greater customer orientation. At the same time, there appears to be a diminished focus on social inclusion objectives. We therefore conclude that promoting access to public sport facilities for hard-to-reach or disadvantaged groups has been compromised in exchange for the pursuit of financial stability. A key challenge is how to achieve market development whereby new and targeted customers are attracted to these existing facilities

The Olympic Games and raising sports participation: a systematic review of evidence and an interrogation of policy for a demonstration effect

Research questions: Can a demonstration effect, whereby people are inspired by elite sport, sports people and events to actively participate themselves, be harnessed from an Olympic Games to influence sport participation? Did London 2012 sport participation legacy policy draw on evidence about a demonstration effect, and was a legacy delivered? Research methods: A worldwide systematic review of English language evidence returned 1,778 sources iteratively reduced by the author panel, on advice from an international review panel, to 21 included sources that were quality appraised and synthesised narratively. The evidence was used to examine the influence of a demonstration effect on sport participation engagement and to interrogate sport participation legacy policy for London 2012. Results and findings: There is no evidence for an inherent demonstration effect, but a potential demonstration effect, properly leveraged, may deliver increases in sport participation frequency and re-engage lapsed participants. Despite setting out to use London 2012 to raise sport participation, successive UK governments’ policy failures to harness the potential influence of a demonstration effect on demand resulted in failure to deliver increased participation. Implications: If the primary justification for hosting an Olympic Games is the potential impact on sport participation, the Games are a bad investment. However, the Games can have specific impacts on sport participation frequency and re-engagement, and if these are desirable for host societies, are properly leveraged by hosts, and are one among a number of reasons for hosting the Games, then the Games may be a justifiable investment in sport participation terms

Understanding the growth in outdoor recreation participation: an opportunity for sport development in the United Kingdom

© 2018, © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This paper examines the growth in importance and scale of the outdoor recreation sector in the United Kingdom. It establishes a five-component model to help understand the growth in this sub-sector of the wider sport and physical activity industry. The paper is based on a narrative literature review of the importance of outdoor recreation and also sets the position of the sector in terms of sport policy in the UK. From determining the factors that are underpinning the growing importance of the sector the article goes on to establish implications for policy and practice in sport policy and development in the UK and beyond. It seeks to establish lesson learning between industry and academia that has underpinned the evolution of outdoor recreation policy development in recent years. Furthermore, it establishes future research agendas and directions for those working in outdoor recreation and physical activity spaces and places

MODERNIZATION AND SPORT: THE REFORM OF SPORT ENGLAND AND UK SPORT

This is the accepted version of the following article: HOULIHAN, B. and GREEN, M., 2009. Modernization and sport: the reform of sport England and UK sport. Public Administration, 87 (3), pp. 678 - 698, which has been published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.2008.01733.x.This article evaluates the impact of New Labour’s ‘modernization project’ on two key non-departmental public bodies for sport, Sport England and UK Sport. Our analysis concentrates on identifying the sources of the general momentum for modernization in the sport sector, how it has been interpreted by government in relation to the two organizations, the nature and consequences of modernization for both organizations, and the future of modernization. The analysis is informed by a range of public documents produced by government and by the two sports agencies, together with a series of seven interviews conducted with senior staff and members of Sport England and UK Sport and with senior civil servants in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Our conclusions suggest that modernization has resulted in a narrowing of the two organizations’ objectives, the adoption of business-like principles and a ‘command and control’ regime in relationships with key frontline delivery partners