Assessing value for money when developing parks for sport and recreation
It’s so costly to develop any infrastructure these days, and new parks are no different. Disregarding the costs of purchasing land…whole other story there…developing new parks is very expensive.
Many people who are seeking funding to develop parks use arguments about the importance of these spaces to the community from social and environmental perspectives. All valid reasons to develop sites for these benefits. Then there are the economic reasons to develop parks from the physical and mental health savings, their ability to host events that support local economies, to the value added to property prices with quality parks and the added marketability of property developments.
So let’s say I have sold you on the value of developing a park, a neat question to consider is what is going into that park, and will the investment in those facilities be value for money? When we are talking value for money, of course, we are thinking about not just the upfront costs of developing the site but the whole of life costs. By that I mean the day-to-day costs such as maintenance, water, electricity, repairs, liaising with stakeholders and of course renovating and renewing assets as they age etc.
Just for fun let’s compare a few scenarios and to make it even more “exciting” I’m going to say that they all will be heavily used, and the costs are typical of those incurred by the City of Gold Coast over the past decade to develop and operate the different facilities.
1. a soccer park
2. a skate park
3. a large netball facility
4. a site for cricket
So, which one is the better value? Well of course it depends😊Most sports organisations can find compelling reasons why they are important such as the physical activity value of kids getting a game of sport, the growth of women’s sports like soccer, the leadership and teamwork skills that are learnt, tradition etc etc. Users of skate parks on the other hand typically don’t have an organisation able to advocate for them.
Please note that the following costs are indicative and are simply rough estimates as a guide to user numbers, hours of use and costs of developing and operating such facilities. Of course, so many factors influence all these estimates… so at best, they are a starting point for more locality and site-specific due diligence. For example, there may be adequate parking nearby, earthworks and existing soils maybe reduce costs significantly, or soccer players may move from one club to a nearby one.
Based on the estimates you can probably build a large netball facility with an awesome skate park and still be ahead of the costs of developing a soccer or football type club facility…especially if you factor in the land value costs. But hands up if you would be devastated to see Australia as a second-rate cricketing nation. We should be endeavouring to provide a diversity of sports opportunities for those at the grassroots level. For those sports that may be considered more “expensive”, it may be that clubs need to be paying increased fees and that collaborating with other sports to strategically share field spaces (eg AFL and Cricket), club facilities, car parking etc needs to increasingly become a fact of life.
