Article Written By Pete Fitzboydon, Chief Exective, London Sport
Technology and sport: peas in a pod at the elite end; yet at ‘our end’ things have changed relatively little. I’ve been speaking at many events recently about grassroots sport and physical activity being ‘under threat’ from other pursuits that compete for people’s spare time. By and large these are pursuits that have successfully embraced technology and data to ‘market’ themselves to people: shopping, cinema, tourism to name but a few. Humans are humans, it isn’t unusual for many of us to follow the path of least resistance and do activities that are easiest. The trend should be worrying for sport, particularly when we see the exponential rise in sedentary e-sports, yet we still seem to have little urgency to modernise in the digital age.
As representatives of the local networks that support physical activity and sport around the country, turning our attention to harnessing technology has to be a priority, not just a ‘nice to have’. In any other sector it has equal prominence to anything else in its operations, and in grassroots sport this means putting it up there with coaching, volunteering, programmes and facilities.
We face a challenge, though. For many of our partners, tech and data can be intimidating concepts, and there is still an understandable desire to wait until they’re given ‘the solution’ to embracing digital, rather than embracing the ecosystem of potential solutions to help move things forward.
In so many areas, as CSPs we’re the first and most important point of contact for grassroots sport around the country. We’re there to advise on funding, on strategy, on expansion and on reporting. We build links, create relationships and support collaboration. We direct, support and enable. The people that deliver the grassroots of sport are understandably looking to us to help them take their first steps in the digital world, and it’s a role that we need to be ready to fulfil.
This won’t be without its challenges. To start with, the tech industry won’t subdivide its efforts along the regional boundaries that we operate within; and nor should it. Good tech emerges from a position of solving problems: if grassroots sport faces one consistent problem in all of England’s urban environments, it won’t create a dozen separate responses.
Secondly, tech start-ups that are looking to work in grassroots sport probably won’t know us. And they may feel that they don’t need to. Simply expecting tech organisations to work with us because we hold the local networks would be a naïve response. We need to prove our ability to add value, and to act as enablers. Yet we have so much to offer, not only in our unique cross-sector networks, but in the fact that we are largely neutral, trusted and individual sport-agnostic. Put simply, were the only ‘body’ who works directly with all the people who need to be ‘modernised’ with tech.
Thirdly – and perhaps most importantly – it can be cost free! The greatest impacts will come from us developing strong partnerships with good tech companies and start-ups: the worst would come if we think the solution is to try and build our own versions of tech that already works well. They have the tech and the hunger; we have the sector knowledge and the connections. All they need is a bit of help and they’ll deliver what we want with someone else’s investment.
All of this lends itself to our most pressing consideration: the need to bring in genuine digital technology expertise to work together to take a strategic, consistent approach to technology. There’s simply no benefit to be had in seeing some areas of the country thriving in bringing tech and sport together, while other regions lag behind. We need to know our responsibilities, be clear in our actions, and understand our routes of referral. All of this is going to require clear thinking within each CSP, and a strong role from CSPN in maintaining a minimum level of expectation among us.
So, I think the immediate direction is pretty easy: take it seriously and give it equal billing; bring in expertise; and collaborate. If we make the mistake of approaching technology in a fragmented way, the sector will simply leave us behind. In a digital age, this is a risk we cannot afford to take.