Sports Management Issue 1 2012 - Leisure Opportunities

TOP TEAM
REBECCA HEMMANT OPERATIONS DIRECTOR, DACORUM SPORTS TRUST
How does the
partnership between
the sports trust,
Youth Connexions
and Dacorum Borough
Council work
The partnership is about
ensuring we achieve the
key aims of the project. These include the
need to ensure that more young people,
particularly the most disadvantaged,
have exciting and safe places to go where
they can get involved in a range of activities
to support their personal and social
development and get access to information,
advice and support services.
How does the centre meet
with users’ demands
It's about providing a hub of adventure,
excitement and challenge in a place
for young people to ‘own’. There's a
cool edge to XC and customers, as well
as staff, want to be part of something
unique. The additional elements of caving
and high ropes was fundamental
to the core provision to enable a wider
group of people to participate at XC.
We got the local skatepark users involved
in the creation of the park to
ensure we provided something totally
unique. Some of the more experienced
skateboarders were very vocal in
their design ideas – thus the 9-footdeep
skate bowl was created.
How popular is the facility and
how is it marketed
Current footfall is around 10,000 a
month, although this number rises significantly
in holiday periods.
The skatepark has been an unprecedented
success, however, the climbing
section has been a slower burner –
perhaps due to the fact that there are
a number of local climbing facilities.
Although we have a (fake) real rock section,
which has brought in climbers from
further afield, we recognise the need to
attract new local people to the activity. _
Our marketing is ongoing, we have
support in the specialist skateboard
press and we are on the climbing forums
as well as the British Mountaineering
Climbing site. We've hosted a couple of
skateboard events – both of which attracted
competitors from Europe and the
US. Our next plan is to develop climbing
and bouldering competitions too.
The demand for children’s parties and
group bookings is flourishing. We’re currently
hosting around 80 parties a month
and group bookings for schools, social
clubs and corporate activity has also
started to take off, which means that
there are rarely any off peak times.
NIC ROWLEY UK SKATEBOARD TEAM MANAGER, VANS
What’s your
background
I’ve been a skateboarder
since I was 15. I’m now
approaching 40 and
still skate as much as my
body allows. I’m the UK
skateboard team manager
for Vans – the biggest skate shoe
company – and I’ve been involved in running
and judging UK-based skateboard
events for the past eight or nine years.
How did you get involved
with the XC project
I was contacted during the tendering
process about running skateboard events
at the centre and sat in on the user group
meetings to check that the building design
was in line with what was needed in
order to hold successful events.
Why does XC fit the brief for major
skateboarding events
Compared to other skateparks – many
of which are located in dark, dirty
warehouses on industrial estates – this
purpose-built building offers an indoor
concrete area in a venue that’s bright,
clean, new and offers good food in
the café area. It's also close to London,
there's great transport links and plenty
of hotels in the area.
What events are hosted at the venue
and how are these marketed
We ran the UK Skateboarding Championships
in October and the Vans Concrete
Carnival in December last year. We flew
in X-Games winner Rune Glifberg from
Denmark and legendary 80s/90s Santa
Cruz pro Eric Dressen from California for
the Concrete Carnival.
I checked that the building
design was in line with what was
needed for skateboard events
These events attract around 500 visitors
– including 100-150 competitors. You
tend to get two tiers of skateboarders at
these events – the guys like me who’re
deeply involved and know everything
that’s going on and the kids with skateboards
who want to skate every day.
Although we promote events through
Sidewalk – the only UK skateboarding
magazine/website forum – social media
is a very effective marketing tool. I have
over 2,000 friends on Facebook, so just
one message is accessed by 2,000 people.
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Issue 1 2012 © cybertrek 2012