In order to promote healthy living and active lifestyles, it’s in everyone’s best interest to have busy spaces that attracts current participants to become more active and recruit future participants to begin a lifelong wellness journey on campus.
Before you approach the board for a potential remodel, expansion, or even a brand new facility, an audit of current spaces and usage is recommended. Evaluating the popularity of programming, surveying your student and faculty population about current and future offerings, analyzing maintenance and replacement needs is all critical to making informed recommendations and developing a capital expenditures budget. Setting a goal of eliminating empty gyms, studios, courts, fields, pools, and locker room spaces with upgrades and updates can save literally millions of dollars that could be spent on architects, engineers, and construction.
This should be considered a three-step process that should be scheduled and completed annually. Most facilities can find a less active time or this can be done on a rotating basis by department in order to keep as many spaces open as possible:
- Inspect and maintain existing equipment if it meets current standards.
- Replace and upgrade aging or unsafe equipment from a reputable manufacturer that meets current standards.
- Expand opportunities by sourcing new equipment and promoting the new activities to current and prospective participants.
Let’s begin with the easiest space to improve utilization in, the indoor gymnasium. How many times a week do you walk by the gym and it’s dark and empty? Most gyms have two or more basketball backstops for intramural and pickup games and maybe volleyball sockets in the floor for intramural play. If you have children’s activities onsite, you may want to invest in height adjustable options for your basketball courts and some multi-game systems to increase the fun factor. Some volleyball posts are designed with a height adjustment system that allows for recreational tennis and pickleball.
Take a fresh look at this space or invite a colleague who isn’t an active user of your facility to give you feedback. Do you feel inspired to have a great workout when you walk in? When was the last time someone tightened up the hardware and cables on your ceiling and wall mounted systems? Is the backboard padding that protects players’ heads and teeth twisted and loose? Do you have a safety cable or seatbelt-type system to prevent overhead equipment from freefalling to the floor? If you even have wall padding under the baskets, is it torn or dirty? Is there a schedule of activities on the door and a link to a sign-up?
How else can a gym be used? Many gyms without separate private studios are used for group classes such as pilates, yoga, boot camps, and interval training. Get the volleyball standards out of storage and schedule time for some practices and games, even badminton for some old-fashioned fun. Portable tennis and pickleball standards can be rolled out a couple hours a day for some all-weather opportunities. Soccer fans often enjoy the indoor version, futsal, on the basketball courts and the same goal can be even used for recreational field hockey.
Are you imagining your gym to be too busy now? If so, invest in some portable or ceiling mounted divider net systems and have multiple sports at the same time to capture maximum usage during the busiest hours. Or, you may need to start requiring pre-registration to manage the space.
Shifting attention to the outdoor spaces you manage, let’s assume you have some outdoor basketball courts and some tennis courts. If these spaces are quiet, try adding outdoor lighting or some privacy fences. Benches and tables give members a chance to socialize before and after. Again, be critical of the impression you get when you look at the space. If you were new to the area, is this somewhere you would want to hang out or are the nets missing, the water fountain broken, and the playing surface cracked and full of weeds?
Maintenance and upgrades cannot be ignored, especially outdoors, where supervision is less likely and safety is a larger concern. You may want to consider flame, mildew, and UV resistant outdoor padding for walls, fences, poles, and columns. Soccer goals that have sharp edges or don’t include built-in ballast should be replaced immediately as much safer options are available commercially. Tip-over and contact injuries are a liability that has gotten a lot of attention as the sport grows.
Your fan-shaped fiberglass backboards that were all the rage in the 1970s might be due for an upgrade to clear or tinted glass or unbreakable polycarbonate and, if you have not replaced fixed rims with outdoor breakaway models, that needs to be considered. One warning is that adjustable height systems may not be appropriate for unsupervised spaces or warnings may need to be added because more injuries happen when the goals are lower than the standard 10’ goal height. If your basketball courts need to share space with other activities, which might even include a dance or picnic, there are now commercially available outdoor portable basketball systems that meet the demands of today’s hoopsters.
As for expanding usability outdoors, the weather in your area may dictate which items are the best investment. Your tennis courts may only be booked during cooler hours, for example, but installing shade screens and misters may expand the number of useful hours. If tennis isn’t as popular at your facility, you can add permanent or pickleball court options with free lessons or a new co-ed league. With the growth in beach volleyball, adding a sand volleyball court may be the perfect option for on-campus fun for the under-21 crowd.
If you are fortunate to have large green spaces for football and soccer, don’t forget about the growth of lacrosse and field hockey! Tetherball is making a comeback and this is a very low cost upgrade. Make sure to order bleachers that meet current codes and are weatherproof to avoid rust-related failures.
Budget-sensitive facilities will always benefit from taking the time to review available spaces to maximize utilization. Even if expansion ends up being the best option for your facility, investing the time to analyze public spaces on an annual basis can reduce liability and improve customer satisfaction and will serve as a launchpad for an efficient planning process, saving time (and money) in the design and construction stages. The most successful private universities rely on a positive, inclusive student experience and the impact of your efforts cannot be overlooked.
