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Pioneering a significant step change to more informed and connected planning, investment and delivery post-COVID, ActiveXchange has hosted multiple state sporting associations in NSW who will form the second wave of sports onboarded onto its SportsEye platform

The organisations came together at the Australian College of Physical Education in Sydney Olympic Park to showcase their individual Sport accounts and ensure a smooth handover of such critical organisation intelligence.

Speaking at the launch, ActiveXchange Chief Executive, James Ellender advised “what’s exciting is that from today, it doesn’t matter what the size your sport is, you have visibility of your performance, your opportunity to grow and can talk with evidence and clarity about the local relationship between infrastructure, clubs and registrations.”  

As the SSOs commence accessing the platform and honing their data analysis skills, there are three main benefits for both sport and government:

1. Knowing the current picture
It puts everyone on the same page in terms of who is using infrastructure currently, where teams and clubs are playing, where ‘unmet demand’ still exists and what this means in terms of infrastructure requirements. 

This saves time, cost and delays of ad-hoc data requests for both sides. It also provides government with a birds-eye view on where there’s common need in an area across several sports and how this aligns with their own local demographic and socio-economic priorities, using benchmarks, trends and forecasting. 

2. Identifying the highest priority gaps
Having a consistent feed of insight helps each sport to compile their hierarchy of projects and therefore priority areas, and local government partners. It helps the local and state government at the same time understand the relative importance of the project(s) for the sport alongside the relative impact on different pockets of the resident communities, helping shape the best local mix of provision.

3. Knowing what the value is of addressing these gaps 
Perhaps the most important benefit in that it aligns current member and participation data with government health and wellbeing indicators, connecting through cross-government language with indicators including obesity, deprivation, inactivity etc.

This helps government make the business case for sport infrastructure much easier, when faced with a myriad of alternative options.

Ellender added “the sport and physical activity sector across Australia and New Zealand have been data rich but insight poor for too long.

“It is great to see the opportunity for so many sports to embrace the role of data and technology in helping to shape a more informed and connected sector. It’s also been fantastic to hear the recent feedback from local governments and sports who have connected into the Network.”

Current sports integrated with the SportsEye Network in NSW include AFL, athletics, baseball, basketball, cycling, football, gymnastics, hockey, ice hockey, ice skating, netball, pony club, rugby league, squash, swimming, softball, tennis and volleyball.

According to Sport Australia’s Value of Community Infrastructure Report, the value of facilities is $16.2 billion, measured across a series of social, health and economic indicators. Yet up until now the data and information needed to shape more effective decisions on what to build, refurbish, or protect, when, and where, has been locked in silos.

Usually within membership management systems or spread across multiple Excel sheets. This has significantly impeded the progress of the industry when it comes to right offer, right place, right time - and is one of the main reasons for why 68% of the Australian population are overweight or obese. It is also why certain sports have not reached their full participation potential. Add into the mix COVID-19, the squeeze on government budgets, capacity restrictions, and a general umbrella of uncertainty, the risk of not being data driven and focussed has never been greater. 

Further information is available at www.ActiveXchange.org

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