Sports Management Q2 2012 - Leisure Opportunities

The FIA is looking to work withNGBs to get more people moreactive within member facilitiesChief executives areencouraging partners tocreate innovative,integrated servicesPIC: © WWW.SPORTENGLAND.ORGA NEED FOR INCREASED NGB/FIA COLLABORATIONDAVID STALKERs part of our Memorandumof Understanding with SportA England, the Fitness Industry Association(FIA) has pledged to work withmore national governing bodies of sport(NGBs) to get more people, moreactive, more often.Eleven of the top 20 sports (inrelation to participation levels, as detailedin Sport England’s Active PeopleSurveys) can take place within a healthclub or leisure centre.Operators of those facilities currentlysee more than one million people, everyday of the week. They have the capacityto see a million more. Eighty-nine percent of the country’s population liveswithin two miles of these facilities, whichhave seen a year-on-year increase in usagefor the past 20 years.So as the trade body for health andfitness, the FIA is committed to workingwith NGBs and NGBs must, in turn, workwith the FIA to achieve our overall objectivesto increase participation levels.The FIA have more than 3,000 facilityoperating members, who proactivelycontribute to the overall health and wellbeingof the nation. We want to get themost out of every activity and get moreconsumers doing physical activity, whetherthat is participating in a sport such asswimming at a leisure centre, or runningon a treadmill within a health clubenvironment or at a bootcamp sessionoutside – there are many opportunitiesto find a sport of their choice.The FIA has numerous partnershipprogrammes, such as Asda Active andShift into Sports, and we want to provideNGBs with the opportunity to beinvolved in these.We want to discover how we can helpto promote established NGB programmesthrough our operatormembers andexponentially growparticipation rates.We will also strive to support NGBsto develop their understanding of thehealth agenda and support their evidencebase for sport and physical activitythrough The FIA Research Institute at theUniversity of Greenwich.In the essence of partnership working,and the opportunity to learn first-handabout the FIA and find out some of theways that we could work together, theFIA is offering all Sport England-recognisedNGBs an FIA member rate to attendour fourth annual Flame Conference andBall of Fire, held at the Magna Centre inSheffield on the 27th June.David StalkerCEO, Fitness Industry Association@DavidStalkerIssue 2 2012 © cybertrek 2012 Read Sports Management online sportsmanagement.co.uk/digital 9