Sport 21 Background Report no. 13 This is no. 13 in a series of background reports being prepared during 2002/03 to inform the revision of Sport 21, the national strategy for sport in Scotland.
A Profile of Athletics in Scotland
Research Digest no. 92
by
Research Unit sportscotland
Published by © sportscotland Caledonia House South Gyle Edinburgh EH12 9DQ
Tel: 0131 317 7200 Fax: 0131 317 7202 email: [email protected] website: www.sportscotland.org.uk
ISBN 1 85060 421 5 Price £5 October 2002 FURTHER INFORMATION
This report is available on sportscotland’s website:
www.sportscotland.org.uk
Governing Bodies of Sport. Outline information on the Scottish governing bodies of sport is contained in a Fact Sheet in the series of Sport 21 information papers. The sportscotland website includes contact details of all governing bodies plus links to their websites.
Participation. Reports on sports participation are published annually. The current version is Sports Participation in Scotland 2001 (sportscotland Research Digest no. 90). This is available on the website and will be superseded by the report for 2002 in early summer 2003.
Sports Clubs in Scotland. The full and summary versions of the report Sports Clubs in Scotland (sportscotland Research Report no. 75 and Research Digest no. 59) have been published and are available from sportscotland and on our website. Reports with the responses to all the questions in the national survey of clubs (from which a selection for athletics are included in this report) have been published for the following ten sports where the sample sizes were considered large enough to justify individual analyses. These are also available on the website. Angling Football Athletics Golf Badminton Hockey Bowls Swimming Cricket Tennis
Facilities Database. sportscotland maintains and continues to develop a substantial database of sports facilities in Scotland. Four projects in 2002 are updating the information for indoor sports facilities, pitches and courts, golf facilities and countryside sports provision and are also addressing qualitative aspects and the resulting refurbishment and replacement implications. These follow the publication of The Ticking Time Bomb that identifies the implications for Scottish swimming pools over the next 20 years. Information from the facilities database may be obtained by contacting: [email protected] (0131 472 7525).
Profiles of Individual Sports. This series of profiles of individual sports draws on governing body information; participation data; sports club survey; and the facilities database. The following sports are being profiled in these Background Reports designed to inform the revision of Sport 21, and the profiles are being placed on the website during the autumn of 2002. Angling Cricket Hockey Athletics Curling Rugby Badminton Football Swimming Bowls Golf Tennis
2 CONTENTS
Page
3 Acknowledgements 4 Section 1: Organisation of Athletics 5 Section 2: Profile of Participants 9 Section 3: Profile of Clubs 14 Section 4: Facilities for Athletics
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This report was prepared by sportscotland’s Research Unit as part of a series of Background Reports to inform the revision of Sport 21, the national strategy for sport in Scotland. It is one of 12 profiles of sports that include information on the organisation of the sport; participation; clubs; and facilities. The participation and clubs sections are based on information from two studies commissioned by sportscotland: · The athletics information from the survey of sports clubs in Scotland derives from analyses by the Planning Data Management Service of the sports clubs questionnaire data gathered by the Survey Unit on behalf of the Centre for Leisure Research, all of Edinburgh University. · The athletics information from the regular survey of sports participation by the general public that derives from System’s Three’s Scottish Omnibus Survey. sportscotland is grateful to colleagues at Scottish Athletics for their help; and the 71 athletics clubs throughout Scotland who took the time and trouble to complete questionnaires.
sportscotland October 2002
3 SECTION 1: ORGANISATION OF ATHLETICS
1 Scottish Athletics is the national governing body for athletics, founded in 1883 as the Scottish Amateur Athletics Association.
2 Contact: Scottish Athletics tel: 08700 500 600 Caledonia House fax: 0131 317 7321 Redheughs Rigg email: [email protected] South Gyle website: www.saf.org.uk Edinburgh EH12 9DQ
3 Athletics is an Olympic, Paralympic and Commonwealth Games sport. Scottish Athletics is responsible for hill running, running, walking and field events in Scotland. The following 45 types of event are listed on its website with their Scottish national outdoor and/or indoor records:
60m 4 x 100m Relay High jump 100m 4 x 200m Relay Pole vault 200m 4 x 400m Relay Long jump 300m 3 x 800m Relay Triple jump 400m 1,600m Medley Shot 800m Discus 1,000m 3km Walk Hammer 1,500m 5km Walk Javelin 1 mile 10km Walk Pentathlon 2km 20km Walk Heptathlon 3km 30km Walk Decathlon 5km 50km Walk 10km Scots hammer Marathon 28lb Weight for distance 2km Steeplechase 56lb Weight for height 3km Steeplechase 60m Hurdles 100m Hurdles 110m Hurdles 400m Hurdles
4 In 2002 there were 138 clubs plus 34 associations affiliated to Scottish Athletics, and some 6,600 members:
Members Male Female Total Senior 2,461 968 3,429 Junior 1,576 1,581 3,157 Total 4,037 2,549 6,586
4 SECTION 2: PROFILE OF PARTICIPANTS
Participation Rates
5 One per cent of the adult (16+) and 22 per cent of the child (8-15) respondents had taken part in athletics within the previous four weeks during the most popular months (Table 1). Adult participation rates in athletics have not varied from around one per cent since the data were first collected in 1987. When these rates are applied to the Scottish population, around 46,000 adults and 115,000 children had taken part in athletics.
Table 1: Participation in Athletics During the Season, 1999-2001
Participation Adults Men Women Children Boys Girls (most popular 2 mos) (aged 16+) (aged 8-15) Participation in last four weeks during the season % of respondents 1 2 1 22 22 23 No. of participants (000s) 46 32 14 115 58 57 *Base: 6,152 2,953 3,199 1,001 488 513
6 In terms of participant numbers, athletics is similar in popularity among adults to a range of sports including ice skating, riding, table tennis, rugby, squash and skiing. Among children it is similar in popularity to badminton and walking. (Table 2)
Source
Since 1987 sportscotland has commissioned data on sports participation every other month from System Three’s Scottish Opinion Survey. This is a monthly survey of about 1,000 adults (aged 16 and over) from 40 sampling areas in mainland Scotland. Since 1998 children (aged 8 to 15) have been included in the survey. The question asked is:
· In the last 4 weeks, have you taken part, however informally, in any of these sports or physical recreations in Scotland? A showcard with a list of sports is used so that respondents are in no doubt as to what to include and acts as a reminder. The last four weeks is a period that normally results in good recall, particularly of the number of times they have taken part. It also allows a rough definition of ‘participation’ to be determined, excluding those who rarely take part. ‘However informally’ emphasises that participation is not limited to formal or competitive activity. The focus is on participation by Scottish residents in Scotland.
The data are analysed for sportscotland by the Planning Data Management Service of Edinburgh University. Sports participation questions are included in the survey every other month throughout the year, but for purposes of identifying actual participation rates only data from the most popular two months each year are analysed, in order to avoid artificially lowering the average with rates from out-of-season participation. Results over three years are combined in a three-year moving mean. This is intended to boost accuracy by increasing the sample size, and to smooth out year-on-year variations that are simply due to sample fluctuations. Statistics on participation in athletics are provided here for 1999-2001. For further comparisons with other sports, see sportscotland’s Research Digest no. 90, Sports Participation in Scotland 2001, also available on sportscotland’s website. This is updated annually, usually early summer.
*Here and throughout, the ‘Base’ figure is the total number of respondents to the question.
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Table 2: Participation in Sports/Physical Recreations During the Season, 1999-2001 Sport/Physical Recreation Adults (16+) Children (8-15)
Percentage of respondents during most popular two months Walking (2+ miles) 32 21 Swimming 22 52 Football 11 62 Cycling 10 43 Golf 10 15 Dance 9 19 Keep fit/Aerobics 9 11 Snooker/Billiards/Pool 8 15 Multigym/Weight training 7 4 Running/Jogging 6 38 Tenpin bowling 6 10 Hillwalking/Climbing/Mountaineering 5 5 Bowls 4 2 Angling 3 6 Badminton 3 22 Sailing and other water sports 2 2 Tennis 2 18 Yoga 2 0.5 Athletics 1 22 Basketball/Netball/Volleyball 1 37 Horse riding 1 5 Ice skating/Ice hockey 1 10 Martial arts 1 6 Rugby 1 11 Skiing 1 3 Squash 1 3 Table tennis 1 8 Gymnastics 0.7 17 Curling 0.5 0.6 Hockey 0.5 18 Cricket 0.4 4 Judo 0.1 1 Base: 6,166 996 Figures are from a representative sample of households in mainland Scotland participating during the four weeks prior to interview in the most popular two months for each sport, cumulated over 1999-2001.
Social Profile
7 A national sample of the general population is the only means of obtaining meaningful figures on participation in sport, and for the following profile of athletics participants this has resulted in a modest sample size of 136 adult participants and a larger sample of 433 child participants (Table 3). Some margin of error must be assumed. (For more details of the survey, see the box on ‘Source’ above.)
6 8 Three-quarters (73%) of the adult participants were men, while roughly equal proportions of girls and boys took part.
9 Two-thirds (69%) of the adult participants were aged under 35, compared with one-third (32%) of the overall population, but a quarter (24%) of participants did continue to take part into the 35-54 age group.
10 In terms of social class, participants were more likely to be from white collar backgrounds as nearly two-thirds (63%) of adult participants were from AB and C1 social groupings compared with 45 per cent of the overall population. However, C2 participants were also well represented.
Table 3: Social Profile of Athletics Participants 1999-2001 and Population 2000
Social Adult Scottish Child Scottish Profile participants population* participants population*
% of adults (16+) % of children (8-15) Gender Male 73 47 48 51 Female 27 53 52 49 Age 16-24 47 14 25-34 22 17 35-54 24 36 55+ 7 33 Social Class¹ AB 27 19 14 19 C1 36 26 29 26 C2 20 22 24 22 DE 18 33 33 33 Base²: 136 4.077m 433 0.518m *Source: GROS 2000 mid-year population estimates provisionally revised using the 2001 Census.
11 A substantial minority (41%) of adult participants and fewer (17%) child participants were members of an athletics club (Table 4).
Table 4: Club Membership of Athletics Participants
Club Adult Child Membership participants participants Percentage of respondents Yes 41 17 No 59 83 Base²: 137 350
7 12 Over half (54%) of adult and nearly two-thirds (64%) of child participants took part at least once a week during the season (Table 5).
Table 5: Frequency of Participation in Athletics in the Season
Frequency Adult Child (most popular 2 mos) participants participants
Percentage of respondents Less than once a week 46 36 Once a week 20 29 Up to twice a week 13 29 More than twice a week 21 7 Base3: 70 84
Notes ¹AB Higher and intermediate managerial, administrative and professional. C1 Supervisory, clerical and junior managerial, administrative and professional. C2 Skilled manual workers. DE Semi-skilled or unskilled manual workers; apprentices in skilled trades; casual or lowest grade workers; state pensioners or widowers; those entirely dependent on the state long term through sickness, unemployment, old age or other reasons.
²The base number for the survey in Tables 3 and 4 is the all-year figure (not just the two most popular months) over the three-year period for those who reported that they had taken part during the four weeks prior to interview.
3For frequency, only those who took part during the most popular two months have been included, on the assumption that ‘off-season’ frequency may be different from that at the most popular period of the year.
8 SECTION 3: PROFILE OF CLUBS
13 In the summer of 1999 Edinburgh University undertook a major survey of clubs in Scotland on behalf of sportscotland. The following section gives a selection of key results for athletics clubs compared with results from all clubs in the survey. A total of 71 completed questionnaires were received out of 191 sent to athletics clubs, a response rate of 37%. The response rate for all clubs in the survey was 36 per cent.
Year Established
14 Despite the long history of the sport, only 14 per cent of the athletics clubs were established in their present form more than 50 years ago and three-quarters (74%) were established in the last 30 years.
In which year was your club established in its present form?
Athletics All Clubs Percentage of responding clubs
Pre-1900 8 15 1900-1949 6 19 1950-1969 13 12 1970-1979 19 14 1980-1989 38 17 1990-1999 17 23 Base*: 64 3,038
Governing Body Affiliation
15 Virtually all (96%) of the athletics clubs were affiliated to Scottish Athletics.
Is your club affiliated to the governing body?
Athletics All Clubs
Percentage of responding clubs
Yes 96 91 No 4 9 Base: 70 3,462
* Here and throughout, the ‘Base’ figure is the number of clubs who gave a reply to that question.
9 Competition
16 Similarly, virtually all (97%) took part in external competition.
Does your club take part in any external competition events, matches or leagues?
Athletics All Clubs
Percentage of responding clubs
Yes 97 88 No 3 12 Base: 70 3,450
Membership
Membership Numbers
17 Membership numbers varied considerably from club to club: 29 per cent had under 40 members and 24 per cent had a 100 or more, with an average for all the sample of 84.
What is the total membership of your club? (Including players, non-players and social members)
Athletics All Clubs Average mean no. 84 133 Base: 69 3,396
Adult/Junior and Male/Female Playing Membership
18 A third (32%) of the clubs did not cater for junior players but all except three per cent included female players.
Are there adult and junior playing members in your club?
Athletics All Clubs Percentage of responding clubs Adult and junior playing members 68 55 Only adult playing members 32 30 Only junior playing members 0 15 Base: 65 3,217
10 Are there male and female playing members in your club?
Athletics All Clubs Percentage of responding clubs Male and female playing members 94 66 Only male playing members 3 28 Only female playing members 3 6 Base: 65 3,240
Membership Involvement
19 Two-thirds (68%) of the members were mainly involved in competitive athletics and 28 per cent were mainly involved recreationally.
Approximately what percentage of members are… Athletics All Clubs Average percentage for all responding clubs …involved mainly in external matches/competitions/events? 68 48 …involved mainly in recreational sport? 28 44 …non-sports players/social members? 4 8 Base: 65 3,002
Waiting List/Concessions
20 None of the clubs had a waiting list for membership. Concessionary rates for various groups were offered by 62 per cent; the majority of these did so for children (74% of clubs offering concessions) and families/couples (58%).
Athletics All Clubs
Percentage of responding clubs that offer any concessions Children 74 68 Families and couples 58 24 Students 44 39 Those on benefits or low-waged (eg, senior citizens, unemployed) 40 54 Others 14 18 Base (clubs with any concessionary rates): 43 2,035 Multiple responses, so figures sum to more than 100%
Change in Membership Numbers
21 Clubs were fairly evenly split over whether membership numbers had stayed the same, increased or decreased, although slightly more (38%) reported an increase than a decrease (31%).
11 In the past five years, has membership of your club…
Athletics All Clubs Percentage of responding clubs …stayed the same? 31 38 …increased? 38 35 …decreased? 31 26 Don’t know 0 1 Base: 68 3,353
Change in Membership Age
22 Another fairly simple indicator of the health of clubs is whether they are attracting new young members. Just over a third (36%) reported an increase in the average age over the last five years compared with a fifth who reported a decrease.
In the past five years, would you say that the average age of the members of your club has… Athletics All Clubs Percentage of responding clubs …stayed the same? 41 43 …increased? 36 40 …decreased? 20 15 Don’t know 3 2 Base: 69 3,359
Club Issues
23 All but three per cent of the clubs noted that there were issues that concerned them. A majority of all the athletics clubs were concerned about attracting new members – seniors, juniors and women – and retaining existing ones, and also about a general shortage of volunteers.
Are any of the following [see list below] an issue in your club?
Athletics All Clubs
Percentage of responding clubs Yes 97 94 No 3 6 Base: 71 3,409
12 If YES, those identified as issues: Athletics All Clubs Percentage of responding clubs that identified any issue Attracting new senior members 74 55 Retaining existing members 65 54 General shortage of volunteers 65 50 Attracting new junior members 62 68 Attracting women members 58 41 Shortage of volunteers/staff with technical skills 51 33 Attracting family members 32 25 Shortage of volunteers/staff with management skills 28 29 Financial difficulties or uncertainties 25 41 Recruiting paid staff (eg, managers, coaches) 7 10 Other issues 10 10 Base (respondents identifying any issue): 69 3,199 Multiple responses, so figures sum to more than 100%
Sources of Income
24 Membership fees were the main source of income for over half (57%) of the athletics clubs. Fundraising was the main source for a tenth, and grants for another tenth.
What has been the main source of the club’s income over the last 12 months?
Athletics All Clubs Percentage of responding clubs Membership fees (incl pay & play, casual, day tickets) 57 56 Fundraising 10 15 Grants 10 3 Sponsorship 5 4 Match or game fees 5 5 Donations 2 1 Bar and catering 2 8 Coaching and instruction fees 2 2 Spectator receipts 2 1 Other 5 5 Base: 60 3,025
13 SECTION 4: FACILITIES FOR ATHLETICS
Facility Supply
25 Current information on sportscotland’s database (see final page) lists 129 athletics tracks in Scotland, 2.6 tracks per 100,000 population. There is provision for athletics field events at 43 of the tracks.
No. of Tracks per Council Area Tracks 10k pop* SCOTLAND 129 0.3 Aberdeen City 17 0.8 Aberdeenshire 13 0.6 Angus 1 0.1 Argyll and Bute 0 - Clackmannanshire 2 0.4 Dumfries and Galloway 4 0.3 Dundee City 7 0.5 East Ayrshire 1 0.1 East Dunbartonshire 3 0.3 East Lothian 2 0.2 East Renfrewshire 1 0.1 Edinburgh City 6 0.1 Eilean Siar (W Isles) 1 0.4 Falkirk 2 0.1 Fife 10 0.3 Glasgow City 16 0.3 Highland 4 0.2 Inverclyde 1 0.1 Midlothian 1 0.1 Moray 2 0.2 North Ayrshire 2 0.1 North Lanarkshire 8 0.2 Orkney Islands 2 1.0 Perth and Kinross 0 - Renfrewshire 3 0.2 Scottish Borders 1 0.1 Shetland Islands 2 0.9 South Ayrshire 1 0.1 South Lanarkshire 9 0.3 Stirling 1 0.1 West Dunbartonshire 4 0.4 West Lothian 2 0.1 *No. of tracks per 10,000 population (10,000 rather than 100,000 is used as some councils have populations well under 100,000). Source: General Register Office for Scotland 2000 mid-year population estimates provisionally revised using the 2001 Census.
26 There are three main athletics facilities in Scotland:
Meadowbank Sports Centre Kelvin Hall Int’l Sports Arena Scotstoun Leisure Centre Edinburgh City Council Glasgow City Council Glasgow City Council Developed 1970 Developed 1987 Developed 1994 Outdoor polymeric surface: Indoor polymeric surface: Outdoor polymeric surface: 8-lane 400m circuit 5 x 200m lanes main straight 8-lane 400m circuit Field event provision 8 x 60m lanes additional straight Full field event provision
14 Facility Ownership and Problems for Athletics Clubs
27 The following information on ownership and problems is taken from the national survey of sports clubs in 1999 also used in the previous section.
Facility Ownership
28 Most of the athletics clubs used local authority sports facilities for participation, either their public (69%) or school (20%) facilities.
Who owns the facilities where your club usually plays/competes/participates?
Athletics All Clubs Percentage of responding clubs Local authority leisure facilities 69 42 Outdoor/natural resources 41 13 School facilities 20 15 University or college facilities 10 4 Facilities owned by another club 9 8 Facility owned by the club 7 30 Commercial leisure, health or sport facilities 6 7 National training centre 1 2 Other facility or location 4 12 Base: 70 3,320 Multiple responses, so figures sum to more than 100%
Facility Problems
29 Half (49%) of the clubs stated that their playing/training was held back by facility problems. Two-thirds (67%) of those using school facilities considered that their playing/training was held back, compared with a 58 per cent using the public local authority facilities.
Is the development of your club’s playing/training held back by any problems with facilities? (Proportion responding ‘yes’ by type of ownership of facilities used.)
Athletics All Clubs Percentage of responding clubs using each ownership type % Base % Base All types of ownership 49 69 43 3,365 Local authority leisure facilities 58 50 57 1,479 Outdoor/natural resources 47 34 50 501 School facilities 67 27 63 646 Base: Number of responding clubs using each type of facility ownership
15 30 Just over a quarter (28%) of the athletics clubs considered the facilities they used to be of poor quality, and similar proportions were concerned that they were not available locally (26%) or were too expensive (23%).
Which of the following problems affect the facilities your club uses?
Athletics All Clubs Percentage of responding clubs The facilities are of poor quality 28 20 The facilities are not available locally 26 13 The facilities are too expensive 23 22 The facilities are not available when needed 16 19 The facilities have inflexible management 10 10 Base: 69 3,365 Multiple responses
Future Facility Developments
31 Two investigations due for completion at the end of 2002/03 will have implications for the development of athletics facilities:
31.1 A suite of studies commissioned by sportscotland will establish the general condition of Scotland’s sports facilities, and estimate the capital cost of bringing them up to a safe and acceptable standard and to then maintain them in an acceptable condition to the year 2025. These include athletics track and field facilities. The studies will also update the database of athletics facilities (which will be reflected in a revision of the website version of this report).
31.2 The Kelvin Hall and Meadowbank Stadium are recognised as facilities of national importance and in need of refurbishment or possibly replacement. A study involving the City of Edinburgh Council, Glasgow City Council, sportscotland and the Scottish Executive is considering them within a wider strategy for the development of major sports facilities in Scotland. This study will build on current strategies, developments and studies, such as Glasgow City’s review of the options for the Kelvin Hall. The study will inform the development of the Scottish Executive’s Major Events Strategy and any facility issues that arise from it.
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