Sport Organisations

Sport Organisations

There are five key elements in a sports organisation, namely, social entity, involvement in the industry, goal directed focal point, structured activities and an identified boundary or framework

• Social entity: Each and every organisation is a social entity. It is called a social entity because it is composed of people who interact with one another and perform the organisational functions.
  
  
• Involvement in the industry: Sports organisations is different from other organisations because of their direct involvement in the sports industry.
  
  
• Goal directed focus: All the sports organisations are created with specific purpose only.
  
  
• Structured activity system: Interactions in the sport organisations occur through a structured activity system such as marketing or human resource development etc. 5. Identifiable boundary: Each organisation needs to have a demarcation between members and nonmembers.

Private Sector Organisations

In the sports industry, private sector organisations refer to those organisations that provide leisure activities which are open only to private members and is funded by private capital. These private organisations mean that they can be specialist professional health club, sports club or any other local team supporting clubs that are specially established by the sponsorship of local and national business.

The main advantage of having these private sports organisations is mainly economic as the funding of private sports club outreaches the economic resources available to the public sector sports organisations. Private sector sports organisations are more popular and productive than public sector sports industries as it had an elevated status and came from the setup of private school sporting institutions.

Private sector sports organisations have a few disadvantages and the inherent disadvantage of this sector for sports and leisure services is that it exclusively relies on private sector for funding. There is no guarantee for this source of funding to be constant for a fixed period of time.

The benefactors of such private sports organisations are themselves subject to ups and downs of the free market economy which resulted in instabilities in their funding over a period of time in addition to this the leisure services catering to the private sector inevitably suffered from the lack of a spirit of community.

It could only have association with local public authorities. Although the private sports sector appeared to be having all advantages on the face value, but the reality is that there is lack of stability and it is characterized in all aspects of the private sector economy and this hampered its growth and popularity.

The private sector organisations are composed of a number of commercial operators which are owned by individuals or companies

The main aim of these private operators is to generate profit by providing the services and products to their customers

The main activity area of these private sector players in the leisure and recreation industry is in the area of retail sales catering accommodation health and fitness etc. The source of funding for the private sector in this area depends upon the size of the business and its legal identity. It can be a small time sole trader or a large business most of the new business looks out for getting the funds from the banking institutions at lower rate of interest.

Public Sector Organisations

Public sector organisations make a positive contribution to the national moral as well as economy. These organisations have a spirit of community and equal opportunity for the personnel development and at the same time focus on social integration.

These public sector organisations promote sports in a large way so that the everyone somewhere or the other can participate in it. Like private sector institutions even public sector institutions have their own set of advantages and disadvantages. The most obvious advantage is that there is a rapid increase in funding of these organisations and the major disadvantage is the concern of the very nature of government.

Public sector sports organizations are subject to the same ups and downs which private institutions face. Even if we get best in the private sector in the public sector, the public sector services are provided for the public and are collectively paid for by the government.

Central as well as local government lay funds for the public sector organisations and this in turn affects the strategies and policies.

The difference between public sector and private sector lies in the fact that private sector views provision of leisure services as a product catering to the customer whereas public sector regards provision of leisure services as a social service to the community rather than a profit making venture. Facilities provided by the public sector includes leisure centre, swimming pools, library, fitness centres and several health clubs.

As a direct result, funding within the public sector has seen a sharp, unprecedented rise since the early 1990s with the government acting as the focal point behind this increase in official spending. An investment over the next five years by way of state sponsored assistance has been promised to further increase the organisational structures and performance levels of adult and child athletes who train and practice within the public sector.

This money, bolstered by funding generated from institutions is delegated to local sports authorities and injected into the local community. This financial injection is far beyond any investment proposed by private capital; in fact, because of this large economic discrepancy, the private sector has increasingly sought to form a partnership with the public sector in order to be associated with the vast increase in interest in sport as witnessed in recent years.

Moreover, public sector sports services also get to reap the rewards of the government’s efforts at placing the country on the international sporting map. Not only has the funding vastly increased, the facilities that have been and are being constructed are open to the public after the completion of the official competition.

This has served to open up a city centre swimming pool, an athletics track and a football stadium for use within the public sector. Moreover, as the new facilities and funding increase, so the burgeoning association between national identity, local and central government and sport is further cemented. This has helped to push people into participating in public as opposed to private sports services, representing a significant turnaround from previous decades.

Like private sector sporting institutions, public sector services are similarly riddled with pros and cons. The most obvious advantage at the present time is the aforementioned increase in public authority funding and facilities open to the public sector, exacerbated by a media that constantly underlines the partnership taking place between local government and sport. This is, however, a double edged sword as the major disadvantage to public sector sports services concerns the very nature of government. Thus, public sector sports are subject to the same ups and down and insecurities that beset the private sector.

Third Sector Organisations

The third sector organisations also known as voluntary organisations, rely upon both the community as well as private enterprise for the funding therefore move around the boundaries that have traditionally separated public and private sectors. The examples of third sector organisations include non-governmental organisations, self-help groups, registered charities, co-operatives and other social enterprises.

The fundamental principles which characterises third sector organisations are that they work independent of the government control, they are value-driven in the sense that they follow social goals over profit motives and that third sector organisations mostly reinject the excess that they earn for the future actions of the institution in pursuit of their goals.

Examples of third sector sports organisations include the likes of clubs for under-19 children in football or NGOs forming sports club for underprivileged kids or institutions working to empower girl children through specific sports like skating or organisations working for promotion of inclusion of LGBTQIA+ community children in mainstream sports, etc.

Broadly, the activities that form part of the third sector sports organisations are lobbying or advocacy, commissioning research or public campaigning. More specifically, third sector organisations may be involved in problem-solving of specific issues, representing certain sections of the society, providing legal advice to the needful, providing equipment or facilities for practice, etc.