To assist sports club think through the process of club development, sportscotland has prepared a series of case studies showing how a range of different clubs have successfully tackled their own development. Each of the case studies listed below and linked in the right-side panel provides some background on the club, a description of the various stages of development (both facilities development and sports programme delivery), the key factors contributing to success, and an analysis of the problems encountered along the way. You'll also find details of how the club is managed and how the development was funded. Finally, each case study shows the tangible outcomes and benefits from engaging in club development.
The article on '10 steps to successful club development' summarises the key lessons to be learned from these case studies for any club development programme.
Case studies currently available
- Stirling Swimming Club is a thirty-year old swimming club that has been reinvigorated in the last five years with the appointment of a professional coach to drive the training and race programme. The club provides competitive squad facilities and is now at full capacity. The management committee have adopted a business approach to ensure the long-term sustainability of the club.
- Murieston United Community Football Club is a highly successful football club based in Livingston for children and young people currently running 26 teams in 11-aside and soccer-7s leagues. The club has negotiated with the local council to take on community management of its own facilities. It offers an extensive coaching programme and has ambitious plans for future development.
- Dundee HSFP Rugby Club was sufficiently concerned about the decline in young players coming into and through the game that it invested its own time and money to establish the Dundee Eagles programme. This introduces rugby to local schools and offers weekly coaching, fun games and competitive matches at the main club to provide a complete pathway for young people to develop their rugby skills.
- Drumchapel Table Tennis Club is a thriving table tennis club in a disadvantaged area of Glasgow that has attracted around 250 players at several centres regularly for the past fifteen years. With a strong emphasis on fun and participation, the club has also succeeded in attracting and retaining many national and international players. It has won several club and coaching awards, and continues to operate on a volunteer basis.
Newcastleton Polysport is a recently formed umbrella group of sports interests in a small rural community in the Scottish Borders. To improve local sports facilities, the group embarked on an ambitious project in two phases to build an all-weather artificial grass multi-sports pitch with fencing and floodlighting (cost £80,000), and to build a new clubhouse comprising changing rooms, referees room, first aid room, storage space and fitness room (cost £150,000 plus £26,000 in fees). The projects were completed over a five-year period and now around a quarter of the rural community population are paying members of the group.
- Callander Golf Club is the largest of four golf clubs in the Trossachs area engaging in a Rural Demonstration Project as part of a national initiative to introduce nine-year old pupils to golf throughout Scotland. The clubgolf programme was launched by the Scottish Executive in support of the Ryder Cup 2009 bid. It aims to provide all 50,000 P5 pupils in primary schools throughout Scotland with an opportunity to experience the game of golf by 2009. Callander has joined a local partnership of interested organisations to deliver clubgolf. Within three years, the club anticipates more than doubling the number of playing junior members.
- Stirling Triathlon Club is relatively new club that has grown to 135 members in ten years, and now provides an extensive programme of training sessions in swimming, fitness, running and cycling on seven days each week in addition to organising a popular programme of training camps and competitive events.
- Kilwinning Community Sports Club was established in 2000 to bring together a wide range of existing sports interests and clubs from across the town, many with a strong interest in football. From a somewhat sceptical start, the new club has managed to lease a pre-existing area of pitches and changing rooms, and develop these over four years with financial support from the Lottery Sports Fund into a series of quality outdoor pitches, four multi-sport all-weather courts, a fitness suite, and facilities for other sports. The club is now used by 33 youth and amateur football teams, with 60 qualified coaches, and around 2,000 local people.
- Hallhill Healthy Living Centre. This project is the first to be developed by Dunbar Community Development Company and provides a comprehensive range of sports facilities and activities to the people of Dunbar. On an unused site within the town, the community-run organisation has built a large indoor clubhouse and a range of all-weather and grass pitches, creating a facility available for use by many of the town’s sports clubs. Within a few years, the number of players has increased more than three-fold, and the facilities are being used by national governing bodies for squad coaching and national matches.
- Strathgryffe Tennis and Squash Club is a thriving club that has developed its indoor and outdoor facilities to create year-round playing conditions. With financial support from the Lottery Sports Fund and the Lawn Tennis Association, new courts and indoor accommodation have been built at the club. Over ten years, membership has doubled to 1,000 of whom a third are juniors. The club employs a professional coach and a tennis manager, and runs an extensive outreach programme to local schools and community groups.
- Craigwillow Centre is a community-run sports trust in Livingston that has taken over the running of a redundant sports hall in Livingston from the local council and established a permanent base for several thriving gymnastic, tae kwon do and trampolining clubs. The centre is also used for the coaching of national and development squads.
- Cricket Scotland's Top Club scheme - a national scheme run by cricket's governing body to assist member clubs in the development of good junior sections, leading to five-stages recognition and accreditation.
- Fife Flyers ice hockey club - a new club that started to fall apart after initial enthusiasm, and how now got itself properly organised.
