An Olympic Legacy; the facility quandary

  An important part of sustaining an Olympic legacy is the role a facility plays; a strategy must have strong participants as well as a clear vision of engagement.
In Birmingham we have suffered by ignoring our potential and being guilty of mismanaging our assets. Part of this problem has been a lack of encompassing strategy and natural resource use, this is something the city consistently misses and when one part of a community is supported another is encouraged to stutter.
  Whether business, public or third sector, area regeneration and sustainability must co-exist in a wider policy context as well as in the immediate locality.
These are some lessons learnt in Birmingham that could assist any future plans for our Olympic venues.

 Ø  Minimize future losses by having Council employees encourage and monitor strategies/successes.
On the other side don’t assume your Council can create and sustain a strategy; or even be supportive. Be communicative and innovative when lobbying them for support.
 Ø  Legacy sites can be a key to sustaining cohesive local planning policies; they should be treated as community icons and not a future cash cow.
 Ø  Adopt a community investment approach to revenue, larger networks allow for sustainable futures and real legacies.
 Ø  Lower capacity facilities can be the platform for emerging sports, exposure can be gained from modest attendances. Netball, basketball, boxing, shooting, mixed martial arts, hockey and many other sports could benefit from, and sustain the legacy concept.
 Ø  In quiet periods local needs can be sought such as classroom provision, skills exchange, leisure/activities for a range of ages, sport provisions for schools/community groups and a general flexible approach to potential use.
 Ø  As well as leisure facilities venues can host a variety of events such as local markets, boutiques, car boots and community occasions. These encourage a link with a facility and the potential for varied community/business led use. 
 Ø  If a private company has any responsibility to the building make sure they are held accountable to their legal responsibilities. This allows buildings to stay financially viable and not suffer a moment of ‘sink or swim’.
 Ø  Facilities should encourage disengaged communities to engage, even if at first they seem less financially attractive. Legacies need foundations.
 Ø  Think creatively, for example if you have water nearby perhaps combine water sports to your strategy. Strategies should embrace natural resources, especially if these allow expansion of a legacy concept, such as cycle routes to aforementioned resources.
 Ø  Split arenas for multiple sports to encourage interest, have sports days and yearly Legacy events supported by athletes. This can be an excellent way to encourage uptake of less favoured sports as well as finding the audience to sustain the interest.
 Ø  Sports and leisure can increase footfall as well as increasing community cohesion; if coupled with investment in high street and local businesses financially attractive hubs can feed from each other’s successes.  
 Ø  Large events can support lower prices for local users, and these local patrons make large events sustainable and enticing.
 Ø  The Legacy of an Olympic venue is the selling point itself, if managed properly this selling point will sustain many years of revenue from businesses seeking the glamour of history to their conferences and meetings.

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