The 2018 Annual Lincoln University Sport and Recreation Forum, held on campus yesterday, featured experts exploring sport and recreation challenges and successes in Canterbury.
Lecturer in Sociology, Policy and Sport at Lincoln University, Dr Koji Kobayashi, pictured, jointly presented with Global Leisure Group consultant, Peter Burley, on the topic of sports hubs.
He said one of the ultimate goals to develop sports hubs is to build sustainable structure and partnership to optimise the use of public resources and maximise benefits of sport and recreation for community building and wellbeing.
“Ngā Puna Wai Sports Hub, for instance, will not be just home to Athletics Canterbury, Tennis Canterbury, Canterbury Hockey and Canterbury Rugby League, but it will also provide community events, casual participations and other business opportunities.”
Dr Kobayashi said the formation of the sports hubs, or formerly known more as ‘sportsvilles’, was often prompted by common problems shared amongst sport clubs located on the same reserve or place.
In working with Councils and professionals, these sport clubs managed to have access to a new collective, multi-use facility by sharing spaces and resources.
This model of partnership was heralded as an innovative solution to the escalating costs for providing and maintaining community parks and facilities, which were funded primarily by ratepayers.
He said Peter Burley’s 2008 report on ‘Sport Partnership Project’ identified 15 major sports hubs across the nation and the number has been growing since.
He had collaborated with Peter to examine the possibility of sports hubs in a wider context.
Other topics discussed at the forum included strategies and tactics for the effective implementation of youth programmes, parents’ accounts of their children’s participation in rugby league in Canterbury, and the potential of University Sport.
The event is now in its seventh year, and Tourism, Sport and Society head of department, Dr Roslyn Kerr, said the sport and recreation sector needed more graduates, and was worth more than $5 million to the national economy.
The forum for 2018 had been designed in response to a recent survey to highlight how a range of staff and students worked with the sector to produce research of value to sport and recreation.