In a climate of increasing uncertainty and declining levels of traditional sport participation, a new approach is required to support participation physical activity within the community.
Our existing high performance and community sport infrastructure needs to offer modern, flexible participation options, a deeper intrinsic value to its users and a more quantifiable return to its investors.
Sport Australia believes that the sector will need to be bold and embrace new ways of thinking in order to meet these challenges. This includes a shift in focus from ‘investment in sport’ to ‘investment in community’.
Sport Australia aspires for a united and connected national approach to the investment, design and delivery of sport and physical activity infrastructure that
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To generate system change, it requires a system approach. Sport Australia, seeks to collaborate with the sector to create a National Advocacy and Leadership Plan for Sport Infrastructure.
To guide the plan, Sport Australia has developed a draft set of National, high-level principles for all levels of government, sport, community and industry. The principles will provide the foundation for discussion, collaboration and co-creation of the National Advocacy and Leadership Plan for Sport Infrastructure.
In order to meet local requirements and national objectives the principles are designed to be interrelated, agile and flexible. They will set the scene for what we believe is required to ensure Australia’s individuals, communities and athletes are stronger, healthier and more successful.
The potential for all public spaces and places to inspire movement, support social interaction, encourage physical activity and develop physical literacy is immense. Clear, wide footpaths that encourage walking, provision of safe cycle paths and bike lanes that support active transport and allocation of open spaces that provides opportunities for sport and physical activity is critical to support Australians be active everywhere, every day.
The World Health Organisation’s Global Action Plan on Physical Activity 2018-2030 supports the creation and maintenance of active environments as a proven method to contribute to healthier, more socially connected and economically viable communities. A connected and coordinated approach to designing and delivering movement hubs that support communities to be active everywhere is a key principle that all levels of government and industry should aspire to and contribute towards.
Sport Australia supports a national approach to the development of Active Everywhere design principles ensuring a deliberate emphasis on equity of access, a spotlight on user-focussed approaches, integration of physical literacy and the use of local expertise. The creation of national Active Everywhere design principles will provide the opportunity for a collective, collaborative and cross sector approach to support Australia to meets its aim of being the world’s most active sporting nation.
Across the nation, hundreds of sporting facilities exist that are no longer fit-for-purpose, are under-utilised or don’t meet modern standards. Sport Australia supports reimagining the use of existing facilities and increasing our focus on recycling, reinvigorating and repurposing existing infrastructure so that it meets a broader cross section of needs, from grass roots to elite. By reinvigorating existing and redesigning under-utilised facilities, we can inspire local communities to be physically active for life.
High performance sporting events commonly leave an infrastructure legacy. However, the challenge remains to ensure sport infrastructure that is built to support one off, major events can also support long term participation by both community and elite level participants. Ensuring infrastructure is designed for the long term, to meet a range of needs and ability levels and can be utilised to its fullest potential is key to lasting value and sustainable use.
Sport Australia supports the development and use of flexible, adaptable decision making frameworks that provide guidance on reusing, recycling and reimaging sport infrastructure. The development of national frameworks could guide when new infrastructure should be built, help decision makers understand when unused infrastructure should be decommissioned and support the dissemination of simple elements to modernise existing spaces that optimise use.
Climate change is having a direct impact on the way in which Australians participate in sport and undertake physical activity, with regional, remote and fast growing cities experiencing this in different ways. With rising temperatures, more intense droughts, fires, floods and rising sea levels, many open spaces and sporting facilities are becoming difficult to maintain, unsuitable to use and potentially unsafe. An increasing number of sporting events are at risk of being cancelled due to excessive temperatures and operating costs of facilities are rising due to additional water and electricity costs.
As temperatures increase and weather patterns change, infrastructure must be designed to provide accessible, safe and enjoyable spaces that withstand long term environmental change. To reduce the impacts of climate change, we need to consider ways that infrastructure can reduce its carbon footprint, lessen operating costs and minimise waste. As a sector, we must encourage a culture of continuous improvement across all industries to combat the environmental challenges that lies ahead.
Sport Australia supports environmental sustainability as an integral consideration in all community and high-performance sport infrastructure projects. By working across sectors, we will advocate for the integration of sustainable design and reduced waste and encourage proactive, environmentally conscious management practices as minimum standards for operating venues. Sport Australia supports early intervention through development of smart environmental policies, application of localised strategies and sharing of successful examples to deliver beneficial and cost-effective responses to climate change.
The best outcomes are achieved when facilities are developed that celebrate and embrace all abilities, demographics, genders and diverse cultures within our communities. Sport Australia supports deliberate and conscious design that supports early consultation with all members of the community in order to provide the best chance of regular use by all members of the community.
The Centre for Excellence in Universal Design suggests universal design is a fundamental element of good design and that it must incorporate equity, flexibility and simplicity. Designing for inclusivity should consider everyone. This may include, but not be limited to, those new to sport, those with elite, full-time training schedules, those who prefer gentle exercise, people with disability, competitive middle agers, children, families and community members with specific cultural and gender diverse needs.
Sport Australia supports our sector partners who are leading the way in accessible design and we will strongly advocate for the construction of inclusive and equitable sport and physical activity infrastructure ensuring that it meets the needs of all people who want to use it.
The operating environment that supports sport, physical activity and high performance infrastructure is complex and faces ongoing challenges, including increasingly limited space for facilities, environmental impacts associated with developments, a rapidly increasing population with demands for new and flexible participation opportunities and a highly competitive funding environment.
To ensure that infrastructure investment can grow, a multi sector approach is required in the planning, investment, use and maintenance of sporting infrastructure. Sport Australia will advocate for cross sector connectivity, partnerships with sectors other than sport and investment by non-sport sectors to support delivery of sport infrastructure outcomes.
Sport Australia supports the development of a collective systems based approach in partnership with health, education, environment, planning, transport, tourism and infrastructure to amplify outcomes and broaden the social, health and economic benefits for all. This approach can also help to grow employment opportunities, support research development and provide commercial returns for all partners while simultaneously increasing community engagement and supporting elite performance.
Australia is falling behind the rest of the world in coordinated investment in high performance infrastructure and we need to enhance the quality and safety of existing high performance training environments if we are to improve and safeguard our podium results.
While investment in high performance infrastructure helps to demonstrate and reinforce the important contribution of elite sport to Australian communities, we also have an opportunity to strengthen the connection between community and high performance sport through the provision of integrated, whole of pathway infrastructure. Integrated venues can support athletes to transition from local competition to high performance training environments and back through to community participation. This can support elite athletes and also creates a visible pathway to inspire and motivate our local communities to get active.
The Australian Institute of Sport, in partnership with National Sport Organisations and the National Institute Network, leads the development of elite athlete pathways. In support of this, Sport Australia will encourage investment in infrastructure that supports these pathways, creating places where athletes can achieve, where we can discover champions of the future and create more opportunities for Australians around the country to realise their potential.
The future provision of infrastructure needs to be data driven, future focussed, community centred and population determined. Best practice data collection, analysis and planning tools are key to developing an evidence base that supports good decision making and demonstrates the value that sport infrastructure can deliver to communities, industry, sport and Government.
Compared to many other Australian industries, the sport and physical activity sector lacks consistent standards and coordinated collection points to inform infrastructure strategy, planning and investment. Evidence suggests that comprehensive data sources relevant to sport and physical activity infrastructure don’t exist sufficiently to be used in collaboration with other sectors or across levels of government. A significant opportunity exists to capture, analyse and share data on sport infrastructure to support better decision making and improved business cases for investment.
Sport Australia will champion the creation and use of best practice data collection, analysis and planning processes to ensure that infrastructure built today can meet the needs of tomorrow’s communities and elite athletes. Infrastructure development, planning and investment decisions that are made to meet future population trends and demographic changes will ensure that infrastructure continues to positively contribute to the health and well-being of the nation.
Australians intuitively understand the benefits of sport and physical activity. This ranges from an understanding of the benefits associated with participation to the feelings of national pride experienced from watching our elite athletes in action. However, anecdotal understandings of the value of sport are no longer enough and the need to quantify its value is becoming critical.
To this end, Sport Australia has recently undertaken work to quantify the national value of sport infrastructure. As a sector we must be able to articulate the social, health and economic return on the significant levels of investment required to deliver sport infrastructure to ensure that all levels of government continue to invest.
In general terms, sport as a sector is not self-sustaining and has a strong reliance on the provision of grants and funding to survive. This in turn results in a heavy reliance on grant seeking, fundraising, donations, sponsorship and membership as sources of income. Developing a coordinated, national approach to articulating the value of sport infrastructure will assist the sector to speak with one voice, ensuring consistent messaging across levels of government and across different government portfolios.
Sport Australia will encourage the sector to quantify the value of investment in sport infrastructure in order to support a transition in the conversation from one relating to ‘cost’ to one relating to ‘investment, impact and value’.
Continued advancements in technology are disrupting all industries – with the community sport and high-performance sport sector being no different. Technology is shifting the way people engage with and access sport and physical activity, whether it be as an elite athlete, as a spectator or as a local community participant. To stay relevant, the industry must invest in and embrace these opportunities.
As a sector we need to be aware that simple and smart technological advancements are a great way to support different, new and flexible uses of community sport infrastructure and are integral to ensuring high performance sport remains on the cutting edge.
Investment in digital infrastructure can ensure access to sport and physical activity is intuitive, convenient, engaging and better supports on-demand use. Digital infrastructure can support community use through simple enhancements such as sensor activated lighting and can also push the frontiers of high performance sport through video technology and cloud based analysis tools.
Digitisation of business processes, real time data capture, open space virtual reality programs and performance tracking all have the potential to enhance the way sport and physical activity infrastructure is experienced at both the elite and the community level.
Sport Australia will continue to explore, share and promote the adoption and use of digital infrastructure that will help all athletes and community sport participants to remain ahead of the game.
Sport Australia is inviting your organisation to further co-create these principles with us, to debate their value and to collaborate to bring them to life.