CCPR Survey of Sports Clubs 2009

This survey provides information on the state of sports clubs run by their members in the UK in terms of finances, facilities, membership, volunteering and the challenges they face. Sports clubs run by volunteers are a critical part of the sporting infrastructure in the UK. They provide the opportunity for a large proportion of sports participation, with its associated benefits to individuals and the community. They provide opportunities for the expression of active citizenship through volunteering, and are more important than any other type of sporting organisation in this respect (1, 2). Further, they provide the opportunities for social interaction that enriches local communities. In the broadest sense the ability of volunteers to come together and create something reflecting their shared values - in this case, their passion for sport - is a reflection of a society in which free expression of collective values is possible and encouraged, as a positive contribution to society (3). Voluntary sector sports clubs, within their national governing body (NGB) structure, have developed in the UK since the latter half of the 19th century. Sports clubs and NGBs have a long tradition of independence; however they have developed in parallel to commercial sport and sports opportunities provided by local and central government, and continue to do so. Thus while the structure of voluntary sector sport in the UK may appear very resilient, it has to adapt to change and the challenges this brings (4). These challenges include: attracting, managing and retaining volunteers; attracting and retaining members; reacting to pressures to ‘professionalise’ in terms of emulating the management practices of the other sectors; reacting to the policy priorities of local and national government; and reacting to changes in legislation (5, 6, 7). These challenges are not unique to the UK (8) and recently have also included the need to react to the downturn in the economy. This survey was commissioned by CCPR to provide a sound basis for its work of supporting, representing and lobbying for the voluntary sector in sport. While it is anticipated that repeating the survey will allow an identification of trends, the present survey is not comparable with previous work (9) because of differences in sampling, weighting procedures and questions. In particular, the present survey has asked more details about clubs’ volunteers, income and expenditure - the financial questions are particularly important in the present economic climate.