Abstract
Community-level sports fields are public spaces that provide numerous physical, mental, and societal benefits. These fields are often governed, constructed, managed, and used by various interacting groups who have different value systems and preferences that impact their decisions. While sports fields offer an opportunity for community engagement and physical activity to residents of communities, poor field quality or lack of access from misinformed decisions can increase health issues and decrease physical activity participation, especially among youth. That is in addition to decisions made regarding water and energy resources required to maintain these fields. Those who have decision-making authority should consider input from the entire community and other relevant stakeholders; however, there is a lack of convergence and breakdown in communication among stakeholders’ needs and priorities. Additionally, decision-makers often lack effective tools and proper knowledge to select and manage fields to meet demand in a sustainable and just manner. The objective of this white paper is to propose an innovative framework for research that could lead to the development of a common platform for multi-stakeholder dialogue about issues related to improving the social, economic, and environmental sustainability of community-level sports fields. The framework can be implemented by innovatively bringing together physical and social scientists to (1) map and assemble pertinent stakeholders and visualize the stakeholder network, (2) measure leverage points within the stakeholder network that optimize sustainable and inclusive communication and decision-making, (3) identify perspectives surrounding decisions at the community level (through prioritizing different social, economic, and environmental indicators, with particular focus on health outcomes), and (4) develop a decision support tool to evaluate the trade-offs associated with different options. Subsequently, findings should promote and catalyze dialogue between diverse stakeholders to assist with making the complex decisions for these important public spaces.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data Availability
Not applicable.
References
Aspen Institute (2019) State of play 2019: trends and developments in youth sports. https://www.aspeninstitute.org/publications/state-of-play-2019-trends-and-developments/. Accessed 11 January 2021
National Federation of State High School Associations (2019) 2018-19 high school athletics participation survey. https://www.nfhs.org/media/1020412/2018-19_participation_survey.pdf. Accessed 11 January 2021
Koester MC (2000) Youth sports: A pediatrician’s perspective on coaching and injury prevention. J Athl Train 35(4):466–470
Hallal PC, Victora CG, Azevedo MR, Wells JC (2006) Adolescent physical activity and health. Sports Med 36(12):1019–1030
National Federation of State High School Associations (2020) The case for high school activities. https://www.nfhs.org/articles/the-case-for-high-school-activities/. Accessed 11 January 2021
Sallis JF, McKenzie TL, Kolody B, Lewis M, Marshall S, Rosengard P (1999) Effects of health-related physical education on academic achievement: Project SPARK. Res Q Exerc Sport 70(2):127–134
Escobedo LG, Marcus SE, Holtzman D, Giovino GA (1993) Sports participation, age at smoking initiation, and the risk of smoking among US high school students. J Am Med Assoc 269(11):1391–1395
Kulig K, Brener ND, McManus T (2003) Sexual activity and substance use among adolescents by category of physical activity plus team sports participation. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 157(9):905–912
Coalter F (2005) The social benefits of sports: an overview to inform the community planning process. SportScotland, Edinburgh
Kay T, Bradbury S (2009) Youth sport volunteering: developing social capital? Sport Educ Soc 14(1):121–140
Hyman M (2012) The most expensive game in town: the rising cost of youth sports and the toll on today's families. Beacon Press, Boston
Hawkins D, Metheny J (2001) Overuse injuries in youth sports: biomechanical considerations. Med Sci Sports Exerc 33(10):1701–1707
Stracciolini A, Sugimoto D, Howell DR (2017) Injury prevention in youth sports. Pediatr Ann 46(3):e99–e105
Kucera KL, Marshall SW, Kirkendall DT, Marchak PM, Garrett WE (2005) Injury history as a risk factor for incident injury in youth soccer. Br J Sports Med 39(7):462–462
Finch C, Owen N, Price R (2001) Current injury or disability as a barrier to being more physically active. Med Sci Sports Exerc 33(5):778–782
Maffulli N, Longo UG, Gougoulias N, Loppini M, Denaro V (2010) Long-term health outcomes of youth sports injuries. Br J Sports Med 44(1):21–25
Fuller C, Drawer S (2004) The application of risk management in sport. Sports Med 34(6):349–356
Micheli LJ, Glassman R, Klein M (2000) The prevention of sports injuries in children. Clin Sports Med 19(4):821–834
Stiles VH, James IT, Dixon SJ, Guisasola IN (2009) Natural turf surfaces. Sports Med 39(1):65–84
Straw CM, Samson CO, Henry GM, Brown CN (2020) A review of turfgrass sports field variability and its implications on athlete–surface interactions. Agron J 112:2401–2417
Adams C, Leavitt S (2018) ‘It’s just girls’ hockey’: troubling progress narratives in girls’ and women’s sport. Int Rev Sociol Sport 53(2):152–172
Powell LM, Slater S, Chaloupka FJ, Harper D (2006) Availability of physical activity–related facilities and neighborhood demographic and socioeconomic characteristics: a national study. Am J Public Health 96(9):1676–1680
Eime RM, Harvey J, Charity MJ, Casey M, Westerbeek H, Payne WR (2017) The relationship of sport participation to provision of sports facilities and socioeconomic status: a geographical analysis. Aust NZ J Publ Heal 41(3):248–255
Puhalla J, Krans J, Goatley G (2020) Sports fields: a manual for design, construction and maintenance, third edn. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken
Cheng H, Hu Y, Reinhard M (2014) Environmental and health impacts of artificial turf: a review. Environ Sci Technol 48(4):2114–2129
Riches D, Porter I, Dingle G, Gendall A, Grover S (2020) Soil greenhouse gas emissions from Australian sports fields. Sci Total Environ 707(10):134420
Beard JB, Green RL (1994) The role of turfgrasses in environmental protection and their benefits to humans. J Environ Qual 23(3):452–460
Binkley HM, Beckett J, Casa DJ, Kleiner DM, Plummer PE (2002) National Athletic Trainers’ Association position statement: exertional heat illnesses. J Athl Train 37(3):329
Jim CY (2017) Intense summer heat fluxes in artificial turf harm people and environment. Landsc Urban Plan 157:561–576
Hahn T, Figge F, Pinkse J, Preuss L (2010) Trade-offs in corporate sustainability: you can’t have your cake and eat it. Bus Strat Environ Spec Issue 19(4):217–229
Nilsson M, Weitz N (2019) Governing trade-offs and building coherence in policy-making for the 2030 agenda. Polit Gov 7(4):254–263
André K, Baird J, Swartling ÅG, Vulturius G, Plummer R (2017) Analysis of Swedish forest owners’ information and knowledge-sharing networks for decision-making: insights for climate change communication and adaptation. Environ Manag 59(6):885–897
Valente TW, Chou CP, Pentz MA (2007) Community coalitions as a system: effects of network change on adoption of evidence-based substance abuse prevention. Am J Public Health 97(5):880–886
Garney WR, Patterson MS, Garcia K, Muraleetharan D, McLeroy K (2020) Interorganizational network findings from a nationwide cardiovascular disease prevention initiative. Eval Program Plann 79:101771
Nik-Bakht M, El-Diraby TE (2020) Beyond chatter: profiling community discussion networks in urban infrastructure projects. J Infrastruct Syst 26(3):05020006
Peachey JW, Cohen A, Shin N, Fusaro B (2018) Challenges and strategies of building and sustaining inter-organizational partnerships in sport for development and peace. Sport Manag Rev 21(2):160–175
Harris S, Houlihan B (2016) Implementing the community sport legacy: the limits of partnerships, contracts and performance management. Eur Sport Manag Q 16(4):433–458
Crane A, Ruebottom T (2010) Stakeholder theory and social identity: rethinking stakeholder identification. J Bus Ethics 102(1):77–87
Freeman RE (1984) Strategic management a stakeholder approach. Pittman, Boston
Grimble R, Wellard K (1997) Stakeholder methodologies in natural resource management: a review of principles, contexts, experiences and opportunities. Agric Syst 55(2):173–193
Hoolohan C, Larkin A, Mclachlan C, Falconer R, Soutar I, Suckling J, Yu D (2018) Engaging stakeholders in research to address water–energy–food (WEF) nexus challenges. Sustain Sci 13(5):1415–1426
Fouche E, Brent A (2020) Explore, design and act for sustainability: a participatory planning approach for local energy sustainability. Sustainability 12(3):862
Milan BF (2016) How participatory planning processes for transit-oriented development contribute to social sustainability. J Environ Stud Sci 6(3):520–524
Brugmann J (1996) Planning for sustainability at the local government level. Environ 16(4-6):363–379
Borgatti SP, Everett MG, Johnson JC (2018) Analyzing social networks, second edn. SAGE, Thousand Oaks
Valente TW, Palinkas LA, Czaja S, Chu KH, Brown CH (2015) Social network analysis for program implementation. PLoS One 10(6):e0131712
Dyer M, Wu S, Weng MH (2021) Convergence of public participation, participatory design and NLP to co-develop circular economy. Circ Econ Sust 2021:1–18
Bertino G, Rose G, Kisser J (2021) Drivers and barriers for implementation and international transferability of sustainable pop-up living systems. Circ Econ Sust 2021:1–31
Rincón-Moreno J, Ormazábal M, Jaca C (2021) Stakeholder perspectives in transitioning to a local circular economy: a case study in Spain. Cir Econ Sust:1–19
Robertson J, Eime R, Westerbeek H (2019) Community sports clubs: are they only about playing sport, or do they have broader health promotion and social responsibilities? Ann Leis Res 22(2):215–232
Rosso EG, McGrath R (2017) Community engagement and sport? Building capacity to increase opportunities for community-based sport and physical activity. Ann Leis Res 20(3):349–367
Keane L, Hoare E, Richards J, Bauman A, Bellew W (2019) Methods for quantifying the social and economic value of sport and active recreation: a critical review. Sport Soc 22(12):2203–2223
Pittz T, Bendickson JS, Cowden BJ, Davis PE (2020) Sport business models: a stakeholder optimization approach. J Small Bus Enterp Dev 28(1):134–147
Jones GJ, Wegner CE, Bunds KS, Edwards MB, Bocarro JN (2018) Examining the environmental characteristics of shared leadership in a sport-for-development organization. J Sport Manag 32(2):82–95
Trendafilova S, Ziakas V, Sparvero E (2017) Linking corporate social responsibility in sport with community development: an added source of community value. Sport Soc 20(7):938–956
Code Availability
Not applicable.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Ethics Approval
Not applicable.
Consent to Participate
Not applicable.
Consent for Publication
Not applicable.
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare no competing interests.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Straw, C.M., McCullough, B.P., Segars, C. et al. Reimagining Sustainable Community Sports Fields of the Future: a Framework for Convergent Science-Stakeholder Decision-Making. Circ.Econ.Sust. 2, 1267–1277 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43615-021-00115-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s43615-021-00115-z