FACILITY MANAGEMENT
SPORTS CENTRES NATIONAL
Crucial to our medal haul at every Olympics, two of the UK’s National Sports Centres have a new contractor in place. Will this boost our chances at the London Games? Kath Hudson reports
A
part from the English In- stitute of Sport Sheffield, three of the UK’s four Na- tional Sports Centres (NSC) – Bisham Abbey, Lilleshall
and Plas Y Brenin – were gifted to Sport England in the 90s and are now owned by the Sports Council Trust Company. The high-performance facilities within these NSCs are a vital resource for Team GB: at the Beijing 2008 Olympic and Para- lympic Games, Bisham Abbey athletes won seven medals and Lilleshall athletes achieved five.
Elite and aspiring athletes use the train- ing and rehabilitation facilities within these centres; elite athletes can rub shoul- ders with local and regional users coming up through the ranks, or groups visit- ing for weekend and holiday camps. The centres are also home to a number of na- tional governing bodies of sport (NGBs). However, in the lead up to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games the NSCs have been getting a shake up. Serco has taken over the contracts to run both Bisham Abbey and Lilleshall, while the Mountain Training Trust has fought
off tough competition to retain the Plas Y Brenin contract.
“If you’re looking to manage sports facilities, the National Sports Centres are the top of the tree,” says Serco director of leisure Ian Phelps. “We feel privileged to win the contracts in a very tough and chal- lenging selection process and we aim to exceed the expectations of Sport England and the NGBs who use our services.”
Exemplar facilities Twelve contract contenders were origi- nally in the frame and Sport England had
Members of the TeamGB gymnastic squad use the high performance gymnastics facilities at Lilleshall National Sports Centre 56 Read Sports Management online
sportsmanagement.co.uk/digital Issue 4 2011 © cybertrek 2011
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