Improving communities through sport

Community Center: Why Isn’t Our Town Utilizing Our Facility?

Empty playground in community center

Why Isn’t The Community Using Our Community Center?

Developing and building a community center is an exciting thing. It takes years of hard work and effort, so when you finally see that building completed, it feels good. However, that’s only the beginning of the job. The center was built so that the community would have a spot to go for sporting events and recreation.
So what happens when the community isn’t involved or just isn’t interested in what your community center is offering? In today’s blog post, Sports Facilities Advisory will look at why your community might not be utilizing your center and what you can do to change that.

Are You Offering Enough Programs?

It might sound obvious, but perhaps you don’t have a lot of community involvement at your community center because you aren’t offering enough programs. Without the right programming or event schedule, it will be difficult for the community to get involved at your facility. If you are relying mostly on recreation times like open gyms or public swimming hours, you will need to add some programming into the mix to get the community more involved.
Everybody loves going to their local community center to shoot hoops, but if you want your community to be more involved, you should offer adult basketball leagues and maybe even tournaments along with open gym options.

Are You Offering The Right Programs?

While many community centers are not offering enough programming, just as many are offering too many programs that aren’t relevant to their community. A lot of these decisions should come in the facility development process as you sort out who your target audience is and how you can best serve them. If you are in a town that has no interest in tennis, it isn’t a great strategy to emphasize tennis lessons and leagues.
Let your community tell you what they want. When one program or league succeeds, promote that more the second time around. If a program or league struggles and doesn’t generate interest, think about discontinuing that same program in the future. The goal of your community center should be to find what your community wants offered, and that might require some trial and error.

Contact SFA For Help With Your Community Center

Developing and building a community center takes enough time and energy, but that’s only half the job. At SFA, we want to help you get your facility off the ground and running efficiently. Give us a call at (727) 483-7910 or contact us online for more information.

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