Despite several decades of Sport for All policies, opportunities for sports participation are still unequally divided, with certain socially disadvantaged groups having less access to sports. To reduce this gap, structural efforts are needed. A question that arises is what role nonprofit sports clubs can fulfill in this matter. In this study, first, it is explored how nonprofit sports clubs perceive their role and responsibility towards socially disadvantaged groups and how they act on it. Second, it is investigated which factors predict the presence or absence of efforts from nonprofit sports clubs for lowering barriers. For this second question, we focus on people living in poverty. Data are based on a survey among 580 nonprofit sports clubs throughout Flanders (Belgium). The findings indicate that the human resources capacity of the club is not the main barrier. It is argued that local sports authorities and sports federations have an important part to play in supporting and encouraging sports clubs in terms of social inclusionary policies, for example by instilling awareness.
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This article addresses the resource dependencies of voluntary sports club in two Rhineland welfare states with differences in their organizational arrangements of sports (e.g. the centralization of the Sport for All policy). On the basis of the VOCASPORT typology of sports policy systems and the resource dependence theory the composition of the revenues of non-profit sports clubs in Flanders (Belgium) and Germany is analysed and related to organizational contingency factors as well as similarities and differences in the sports policy systems. Data are used from the Flemish and the German panel survey of non-profit sports clubs. The results show that Flemish and German sports clubs differ regarding size, year of foundation and offered sports, but are very similar with regard to their financial structure. Both Flemish and German sports clubs strongly depend on third sector income, regardless of organizational factors. No remarkable differences were found with regard to the dependency on state income. The results suggest that sports clubs in the selected Rhineland welfare states, regardless of the organizational arrangement of the sports system they operate in, depend on third sector resources and have considerable decision-making autonomy.
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Given the recent economic crisis and the risen poverty rates, sports managers need to get insight in the effect of income and other socio-economic determinants on the household time and money that is spent on sports participation. By means of a Tobit regression, this study analyses the magnitude of the income effect for the thirteen most practiced sports by households in Flanders (the Dutch speaking part of Belgium), which are soccer, swimming, dance, cycling, running, fitness, tennis, horse riding, winter sports, martial arts, volleyball, walking and basketball. The results demonstrate that income has a positive effect on both time and money expenditure on sports participation, although differences are found between the 13 sports activities. For example, the effect of income on time and money expenditure is relatively high for sports activities like running and winter sports, while it is lower for other sports such as fitness, horse riding, walking and swimming. Commercial enterprises can use the results of this study to identify which sports to focus on, and how they will organise their segmentation process. For government, the results demonstrate which barriers prevent people from taking part in specific sports activities, based upon which they should evaluate their policy decisions.
Developing and realizing an innovative concept for the Active Aging campus in two years, where students, teachers, companies, residents of surrounding Campus neighborhoods will be invited to do exercise, sports, play, meet and participate. This includes, on the one hand, providing input with regard to a mobility-friendly design from an infrastructural perspective and, on the other hand, organizing activities that contribute to Healthy Aeging of the Zernike site and the city of Groningen. It is not only about having an Active Aging campus with an iconic image, but also about the process. In the process of realization, students, teachers, researchers, companies and residents from surrounding districts will be explicitly involved. This includes hardware (physical environment / infrastructure), software (social environment) and orgware (interaction between the two).
Digital innovations in the field of immersive Augmented Reality (AR) can be a solution to offer adults who are mentally, physically or financially unable to attend sporting events such as premier league football a stadium and match experience. This allows them to continue to connect with their social networks. In the intended project, AR content will be further developed with the aim of evoking the stadium experience of home matches as much as possible. The extent to which AR enriches the experience is then tested in an experiment, in which the experience of a football match with and without AR enrichment is measured in a stadium setting and in a home setting. The experience is measured with physiological signals. In addition, a subjective experience measure is also being developed and benchmarked (the experience impact score). Societal issueInclusion and health: The joint experience of (top) sports competitions forms a platform for vulnerable adults, with a limited social capital, to build up and maintain the social networks that are so necessary for them. AR to fight against social isolation and loneliness.
Sportclubs hebben door de coronamaatregelen een stuk lagere omzet omdat hun stadion maar rond de voor 23% kan worden bezet. Sports Alliance heeft een oplossing ontwikkeld waarmee automatisch een optimalere stadionbezetting kan worden bepaald, maar om hiermee daadwerkelijk een optimale bezetting te halen in de praktijk is up-to-date informatie van de individuele bezoekers nodig. Een onhandelbare situatie wanneer het gaat om duizenden bezoekers per wedstrijd. Dit is alleen te realiseren d.m.v. een conversational agent die automatisch gesprekken afhandelt, gecombineerd met herkenning van "actionable results" en automatische afhandeling in de betrokken systemen, zoals ticketing. Een dergelijk systeem dat om kan gaan met ad-hoc wijzigingen biedt ook buiten de huidige situatie meerwaarde voor de clubs, bijv. rond de standaard 10-15% no-shows. In dit project doen we het nodige vooronderzoek en ontwikkelen we een eerste proof-of-concept van een dergelijk systeem. Ook ontwikkelen we de vervolgaanvraag incl. verdere uitbreiding van het consortium.
