Sport is used as a tool for delivering
many social and economic agendas, whether this is through
development of facilities, improvement of services or attracting
major sporting events.
Facility Development
The challenges facing public and private
sector clients are varied. In the UK, the public sector faces
challenges around maintaining an ageing stock of facilities.
Decisions on whether to maintain existing facilities or to
rationalise and develop new ones are all the more pressing in the
face of current spending cuts. Delivering more financially
sustainable facilities and services is a top priority and we are
working with clients to explore opportunities for rationalisation
and co-location with complimentary services leading to improved
financial sustainability.
Our international work is focused on helping
regional and national government clients raise their profile
through development of new facilities that put them on the map as
destinations for sports tourism and hosting of major sports events.
There are also benefits for the local communities in having access
to new world class sporting facilities.
Major Events
Hosting of major sporting events is
increasingly seen as means to market a host city or country as it
is closely linked to wider economic agendas and destination
marketing. Many emerging economies see it as a means to elevate
their status on a global stage. However, the highest profile events
require significant investment by the hosts in terms of bid costs,
development of infrastructure required to host the events and the
costs of hosting and ultimately underwriting the events. The
payback for hosts can come in many forms under the broad headings
of social, sporting and economic impacts.
We support clients in developing event
strategies, completing feasibility studies for hosting major events
and providing bid support. We have worked on a number of event
feasibility studies linked to the London 2012 Legacy Plan for a
‘Golden Decade’ of events following the London 2012 Olympics as
well as other studies for events including the Rugby World Cup and
the Isle of Man TT race. Much of our work has focussed on a
financial appraisal of the costs of hosting events and an
assessment of the wider social, sporting and economic impacts.
Management & Procurement
Increasing numbers of local authorities are
looking to outsource the management of their leisure services to
achieve long-term contractual savings - something that has
become increasingly important due to recent cuts in budgets for
these services. There are immediate savings that can be made by
many authorities where facilities are currently operated ‘in
house’.
Our leisure procurement specialists know the
operator market very well. It is this close contact and regular
dialogue with the market that provides our clients with the peace
of mind that the procurement opportunity will be appropriately
packaged and professionally managed to achieve best value for the
council.