Performance analysis in sport and leisure management

This commentary documents a programme of research conducted between 1995 and 2012 which, perhaps unconventionally, applied performance analysis techniques frequently used in the business context to evaluate and analyse performance, both financial and non-financial, in sport and leisure. Use of performance analysis in the sport and leisure sectors was found to be lacking by the Audit Commission and therefore provided considerable research opportunities. The research presented was carried out in: professional cricket; major sports events; elite sport development systems; and initiatives to stimulate demand in sport and leisure. The philosophical underpinnings of the research are influenced by critical realism and pragmatism. The former holds that we can have only a partial understanding of reality and that this is subject to revision. The latter focuses on the practical uses and successes of research rather than concern with grand theories and is based upon empirical evidence-based, rather than a priori, principles. In professional cricket, conventional ratio analysis found a seemingly healthy industry that was strategically vulnerable to fluctuations in the performance of the England team; and which was in urgent need of reform to become competitive. The establishment of UK Sport in 1997 created the opportunity for research into the economic and social impacts of major sports events; and, performance analysis in elite sport. Both of these areas of research are underpinned by an approach which devised methodologies for data collection; implemented standardisation techniques; and constructed predictive models which have been subsequently tested, refined and retested. In the context of stimulating demand for sport and cultural activities, price on it is own is found to be a crude weapon particularly for generating market development effects. The coherence of this research is founded upon its commonality of method: in all four areas of research the subject organisations were in receipt of subsidy and the effective use of this subsidy has been examined by employing performance analysis techniques.