Owning a sports field is a huge responsibility, and it can have a lot of obstacles and unique problems that might seem impossible to work with. It can all feel needlessly stressful on some days, and it can be a struggle to cover the cost of everything, including one or two overheads that might take you by surprise. However, there are some things that you need to make sure you know, which might make owning your sports field a little bit more stress-free.
Planning, ensuring safety, renting it out, and upkeep are all things that matter to you as an owner, so you should be seriously thinking about how to improve these four things for your sports field. This can be a big relief if you make sure that you are putting a lot of effort into these things and catching them before they start to slip.
Doing everything last minute never helped anyone, and it can be even worse if you don’t spend the time on your sports field, leaving it to fall into disrepair. With that in mind, here are four things that you should consider when owning and managing your sports field.
1. You Need to Make Sure That You Are Investing in the Upkeep of Your Sports Field
Investing in the upkeep of your sports field is important. You need to make sure that you are keeping it maintained properly. However, this does mean doing a certain amount of research into what your sports field needs.
For example, the track. You are going to need to make sure that the track that runs around the sports field is kept in good condition. If you are thinking of adding a new sports track to your sports field, you are going to also need to look into the highest quality track layers in your area. You are going to need to make sure that they give you a professional-grade finish to your track, whether that is simply patching it up, re-laying it, or helping you install a new one.
This can be a stressful process, so you should be doing a lot of research into what sort of track you want to make sure there are no miscommunications. You are going to want to make sure that the price reflects the quality you receive, too. Click here to find the best track layers or maintenance team for your running track.
2. You Need to Make Sure That You Are Aware of Health and Safety
Making sure that you are aware of health and safety is important, too. This ties in well with the point above. You are going to need to make sure that your maintenance keeps your track and sports field within health and safety guidelines.
You want to make sure that you are creating a safe and enjoyable space for all, and that you are keeping a close eye on your field. Making sure that you are going once a week for general checks is important if your space is open to the public. All sorts of damage, including increased wear-and-tear, can be done when you have it open for general use, and you might need to make sure that you are employing janitors or littler-pickers to help keep the place clean.
If you are renting it out, it is probably best if you check it out after each couple of sessions. It is possible that your sports field might not have someone using it daily, and it might even go a month between uses. You need to make sure that it is meeting health and safety guidelines with every use.
3. You Need to Make Sure That You Are Taking Care When Renting Your Sports Field Out
You need to make sure that you are taking a lot of care when it comes to renting out your field. This is because you want to know who is going to take care of your sports field and who is going to wreck it. Doing checks and taking photographs, as well as installing surveillance, can be great ways to make sure that your sports field is getting the right treatment.
If you find that you are allowing a club or a school to use your facilities and there is a troublesome member or there are issues with things being broken that you have not been notified of, you should have enough evidence, through surveillance and photographs, to approach them and give them a warning on your terms.
This can be either telling them that if it happens again you will take them to court, or just asking them to cover the cost of what was broken and all is forgiven – it is up to you. However, you should be making sure that you are doing these checks and getting the information that you need, just in case.
4. You Should Be Planning the Schedule of Your Sports Field Carefully
This can be a vital part of making sure that you are getting the most amount of profit out of your sports field. Here are some things that you are going to need to plan for to make sure that you are getting the funding that you need.
- Opening times. You are going to need to make sure that you are making the seasons work in your favor, whether it is open to the public or renting. Summer months should be more expensive, and the facilities should be open longer. In winter, it should be cheaper.
- Weather. If there is a patch of bad weather forecast, close your facility. You don’t want someone getting hurt and suing you for the injuries, because you were open in a storm, and someone was silly enough to come.
Doing things such as this can help you maintain your facility and keep people coming back, as well as give you the funding that you need to keep the space safe and enjoyable for everyone.
Kat Irving is a reporter for Diving Daily. After graduating from NYU with a master degree in history, Kat got an internship at WABC-TV New York and worked on profiling local businesses. Kat was also was a columnist for the NPR. Kat mostly covers business and community events here at Diving Daily