Territorial Authority / School Partnerships: A Guide

Prepared for Sport NZ by Visitor Solutions Ltd.

Sport NZ, Ministry of Education

2011

Sport NZ

Further information is available on the Sport NZ website: http://www.sportnz.org.nz/en-nz/our-partners/Territorial-Authorities

Facility partnerships are increasingly being considered to meet the sporting and leisure needs of both the wider community and school students. Research from New Zealand and internationally demonstrates that they can be extraordinarily successful. However, this success in the vast majority of cases comes about from careful planning rather than by luck. Partnerships are not like other development propositions and must be treated differently in terms of planning, design, development and operation.

Partnerships can take many forms and be as simple as small operational funding arrangements, or as complex as the development of multimillion dollar school and community recreation centres. The reasons for schools and councils entering into facility partnerships are almost as varied as the partnerships themselves. The most commonly cited reasons include being able to leverage additional capital, developing larger more complex facilities, gaining access to strategic sites and generating better operational synergies to name but a few.

No two partnerships are ever the same; however there are a series of important considerations that hold true for most, if not all partnerships. The first of these is that partnerships are often complex and therefore take time, considerably more time than if the project was being undertaken by just one organisation. The second is that success often comes down to intangibles, such as the underlying philosophy of the partners. The third is that planning is vital yet many partnerships are guilty of either not planning appropriately, or focusing on the wrong areas at the wrong times, often at great unnecessary expense.

Keywords:

Facilities, Facility partnerships, Funding, Recreation centres, Facility strategy, Funding, Guidelines, Schools, Community, Territorial Authority, School Partnerships, Benefits, Council, Trust

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Exploratory

National

Facilities, Recreation, Sport

Clubs, Community, Schools

Accomodation and facilities, Artificial Surfaces, Events, Facilities (indoor), Facilities (outdoor), Parks - urban, Pay-for-play, Playgrounds, Pools, Sportsvilles/Multisport centres

Benefits, Planning

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June 20, 2012