Build it and they will come. Why it almost never works
According to Kevin Costner, it used to be enough to build it and they would come. In Costner’s 80s hit movie, Field of Dreams a down-on-his-luck corn farmer mows down his crop and builds a baseball field because a voice from they sky has told his all of the long deceased baseball players will return to play. It sounds improbable because it is improbable.
In real life, the only people who find their way through the cornfields are ghosts and fit, relatively privileged young boys. If teenage girls, overscheduled 15 year olds, uncoordinated kids, working dads, working mums, people who hated sport as a kid or people who have a vague interest in the myriad of ways to spend their money and leisure time are to step onto a sports field then new approach is needed.
Dr Danya Hodgetts recent analysis of what happens between an individual watching a sporting event and taking part in physical activity acknowledges a multidimensional behaviour change model is needed for any there change in physical participation.
The roll out of new sports programs in new environments needs to consider not simply delivering a product but also ways to lower to barriers, creating compelling reasons to participate and recognising that sports organisation can not do all of these things by themselves.
The doors to participation are open wider for some than for others.
For a 16 year old girl to play Rugby in Fiji, she needs access to water and nutrition, approval from her fathers and brothers, a way to manage mensturation, a safe place to run around that she can get to quickly and safely. For the chief in the village, her parents, her friends to prioritise letting her have the opportunity, sport needs to be coupled with the chance to be healthier, more connected, better educated or trained in ways to make an income, profiled in all of the positive ways.
For a 16 year old boy to play Rugby in Fiji he needs a ball and a few mates.
It’s too much for sport to do alone. If sport opens its door to partners that improve hygiene, water, sanitation, leadership, education and health opportunities for the target audience then they not only grow the number of players, fans, spectators, coaches, officials and administrators in their sport, they become a pivot point for strengthening a communities. If sports become pivot points for strengthening communities then their traction in community is assured.
