There is a famous saying that “a goal without a plan is a wish” and sadly that has been the case for many sports over many years.
If you do not have a specific strategy for participation growth, you won’t grow. It’s that simple.
Some sports have addressed this problem and have a strategy in place for participation growth
Even though many know they need a strategy, they still don’t.
Some are also only now understanding the need for a specific participation growth strategy and are acting now.
But be careful!
Writing a participation strategy based on “history, anecdotes and emotion” related to your sport only placates the authors (and most likely delegates), and adds to the echo chamber of your sport that you need to exit from.
That is not to say there isn’t gold from long serving and valued members of your sport, there absolutely will be. Capture and respect it, but also acknowledge future needs.
Balance internal contributions out with input from people not currently in your sport. This might be former participants and people who’ve never played your sport before.
Again, you want to grow and attract new players and lovers of your sport, and your strategy should reflect that.
But what about the high performance players and elite squads?
They are absolutely important, but without a wide funnel of new players coming through your system those high performance strategies become vulnerable, maybe obsolete, as will the quality of the players and elite competitions.
If your sport is not growing, you are falling behind. From years of experience, I have witnessed many sports and sporting organisations say “we’ve held our numbers this year”, and essentially they have seen their growth plateau.
That is often the first sign before a major drop-off, and sadly for some, the beginning of the end. If this is the case, you need to change.
No matter how small, you need year-on-year growth for survival. The big generally get bigger, meaning the small often fade away.
To get growth, you want more people playing your sport, not the same people playing more of your sport.
Does the sport you love have a participation strategy in place?
Have a great day!
Ivan Spyrdz
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By the way, I’ve released an e-book called “GROWING YOUR GAME – How to buck the trend of declining participation in traditional sport”. This e-book provides insights and options on how to evolve the way your sport is viewed, enjoyed and loved by all Australians. If you want to grow participation and results in your sport, I invite you to grab a copy by downloading it free here.
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