Entertainment, Fitness and Sports Venue Managers
Organise, control and promote the operations, activities and facilities of entertainment, fitness and sports venues.
Finals night at the sports centre
You are the manager of a community sports centre on the busiest night of the season, with a junior tournament in the main hall and members arriving for their regular sessions. It is 5pm. The doors have just opened, the car park is filling and your phone is buzzing. By seven you will have made three decisions that people will remember.
Choose what you would do. Then see what happens. There are often good reasons for each choice.
We are running twenty minutes late and we have two more games to finish. Can we keep the court until eight? Our referee has to leave if it goes later than that.
Say yes, because the kids have worked hard all season and it is the finals
The tournament finishes happily, but the evening aquarobics class has to be pushed back and its members were not told. A generous yes in one place can be a problem in another.
Check what else is booked, find the time and tell the other group yourself
You find a free court for the late class, ring its organiser and give Noel his extra time. Everyone knows the plan and the evening runs smoothly.
Say the court was booked until seven thirty and they will have to finish then
You are within the booking, but the last game is cut short and the children are in tears. The parents leave upset. Rules matter, and so does knowing when a little flexibility costs very little.
The pool filter alarm is showing a fault and I am not comfortable having kids in the water until someone checks it. It's the swimming lesson time and there are twenty children and their parents waiting.
Open the pool anyway for a short lesson and call the technician tomorrow
Nothing goes wrong, but you overruled a lifeguard on a safety call. The next time he has a concern, he may not speak up. The people watching the water are the ones to trust.
Back Sam, close the pool, tell the parents plainly what is happening and offer a make-up lesson
The parents are disappointed but understand. The technician finds a minor fault that would have worsened. Sam sees that safety comes first in your centre.
Ask Sam to run the lesson in the shallow end only, with extra staff watching
It reduces the risk but does not remove it, and you are still ignoring the alarm. A compromise on a safety fault can leave the real problem untouched.
I have been swimming here for fifteen years, and now I see you are moving my lane time for the new squad. Nobody asked me. I think it is disgraceful, and I would like to speak to whoever decided it.
Listen, explain the change and ask what would help her most
Maureen has been heard and calms down. You agree on a different time that suits her and she offers to help welcome new members. A complaint is often a request to be taken seriously.
Tell her the decision was made already and cannot be changed
She storms out and tells half the club. The change was reasonable, but how it was explained was not. Members who feel ignored stop being your best ambassadors.
Apologise and promise to put her time back as it was, to keep her happy
She smiles and leaves, but the new squad now has no suitable time and you have created a problem to solve a complaint. A quick yes can cost more than it saves.
How it went
By nine the hall is empty and you walk the building, switching off lights. Managing a venue means balancing what the community wants with what is safe and fair. Does the idea of being the person everyone turns to on a busy night appeal to you?
This is a simplified, fictional situation to help you explore. It is not professional instruction or a test of your ability.
Case study: The double booking on finals night
A fictional case set in a fictional community sports and aquatic centre on the night of a junior basketball tournament.
The situation
Kiri Anderson managed the Lakeside Sports Centre. On the night of the junior basketball finals, a local seniors' fitness group arrived for their regular weekly class, only to find the main court taken. The booking system showed both bookings as confirmed. The seniors had been coming for years and felt overlooked. The tournament had a hundred children and a crowd of families waiting.
What they did
Kiri apologised to both groups and took responsibility, rather than blaming the system or her staff. She offered the seniors the smaller hall that night with a staff member to help set up and a cup of tea, and a priority booking for the next month. She then spent the following morning with her team working out how the double booking had slipped through the system.
How it turned out
The seniors were still a bit unhappy that night but came back the following week. The tournament ran on time. Kiri changed the booking process so a second person checks any change to the finals schedule.
What would you do?
- Why was it important for Kiri to apologise to both groups?
- How would you decide which group should keep the main court?
- What do you think is hard about managing a space that everyone in the community wants to use?