SPORT & COMMERCIAL LEISURE
BRIGID SIMMONDS
A range of legislative acts have transformed the leisure and sports sector, but it’s the social changes that have had the biggest impact, says CCPR chair and British Beer & Pub Association CEO Brigid Simmonds OBE
In 1986, sport and leisure design had moved on from the original Crowtree Leisure Centre in Sunderland – a multi- leisure centre for a new generation – to The Coral Reef in Bracknell and eventually to the Guildford Spectrum, a leisure centre of extraordinary breadth, incorporating an ice rink and ten-pin bowling as well as competitive and leisure water. Much has changed in our attitudes to leisure out of home over the last 30 years. In those early days we ate out less, television offered far less choice and we were nothing like as discerning about the quality of the leisure experience outside the home as we are today. At the end of the 1980s, the Local Government and Housing Act came into force amid concerns of high borrow- ing levels by local authorities; this saw the end of a boom in local authority spending on leisure. Next came a trend for active leisure facilities in shopping centres, but with the exception of Scotland, where ice rinks can work with retail, most retail developers recognised that people did not go shopping and swimming at the same time.
I
can’t quite remember the birth of Leisure Management in 1980, however I joined the lei- sure industry six years later and I can well remember the discussions with editor Liz Terry during my time with architects Sargent & Potiriadis and every year since!
LOTTERY TRANSFORMS SPORT 1994 saw the introduction of National Lottery funding and a transformation for sport. I was a member of the fi rst Sport England Lottery Panel; we were distributing some £250m a year, and sport got 25 per cent of the proceeds. It is with some satisfaction I note that, 30 years on, that original bal- ance will be restored by the present government in 2011. Back in those early years many major sport and leisure developments were funded by Lottery money. Many of these projects had been on the back burner for several years and a whole plethora of clubhouses and changing rooms, as well as the Outdoor Basketball Initiative and the Awards For All grants scheme owe their development to Lottery money. There were also some major new national and regional Lottery-funded venues, including Wembley Stadium, the English Institute of Sport in Sheffi eld; the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff and Caversham Lakes, just north of the Thames. The Lottery really did put sport on the front foot. Sport has changed beyond all recognition in the last 30 years and for those of us who really care, the fi nal dénoue- ment must be London hosting the Olympic Games in 2012. This represents the achievement of a lifetime and has pushed sport up the agenda for government in a way which no other sporting event ever could, or ever will, again.
London hosting the 2012 Olympics represents the “achieverment of a lifetime” 48 Read Leisure Management online
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THE LICENSING ACT AND SMOKING BAN The wider commercial leisure sector has also changed hugely over the past three decades, with the Licensing Act and the smoking ban both having a huge impact on businesses in the sector. The introduction of the Licensing Act 2003, which replaced the Licensing Act 1964, was a major change. Gone was the delineation between pubs, bars and night- clubs – before the 2003 Act, nightclubs were the only late night entertainment venue which could open after 11pm. Mind you, the average pub today is open just 23 minutes later than it was before the Licensing Act 2003 was implemented. The smoking ban also had a huge impact on leisure venues. Some 29 per cent of the population smoked, but in pubs the number could be as high as 60 per cent. While many non smokers wel-
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