Playing through change: Community sport managers’ views of climate impacts and participation
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The purpose of this study was to understand how frontline sport managers perceive climate change impacts on community sport.
This topic is important because although community sport is an important setting for managing sport participation, few studies have investigated impacts of climate change on sport. Even fewer studies have investigated climate impacts from the perspectives of sport managers at grassroots-level.
This study is unique because: (a) it sampled community sport across four climate zones (monsoonal tropical, sub-tropical; temperate and semi-arid); (b) it used data from four major participation sports (soccer, cricket, tennis and triathlon), and; (c) it used concept mapping method to develop clusters of climate impacts on community sport.
Managers participated in a concept mapping activity where participants generated 51 statements in response to a focus prompt (“What impacts do you see from climate for your sport (or sport in your region) now or in the future?”), then sorted the statements into groups. Five clusters of climate impacts on community sport were identified: (1) management & planning impacts, (2) financial & infrastructure impacts, (3) changes to events, (4) emotional & social impacts, and (5) health & safety impacts.
The impact clusters represent opportunities for sport managers design interventions to reduce disruption to community sport participation. To manage these impacts, listening to perspectives of community sport is essential.
CITE: Dingle, G., & Donaldson, A. (2024). Concept mapping perceptions of climate impacts on sport participation: perspectives from community-level managers. Managing Sport and Leisure, 1-21. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/23750472.2024.2412000
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