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Managing sports tourism and community recreation facilities requires a massive and focused effort in a variety of areas. Facility managers work daily to generate revenues, maintain costs, provide relevant programming, build a brand, motivate a workforce, maintain equipment conditions, and provide a safe environment for staff and visitors. This formidable set of tasks can be difficult or inefficient for a parks & recreation department to manage, particularly in the case of large sports tourism complexes. The variety of skill sets needed to make a sports, recreation, or events complex financially viable and community-enhancing lies with the experienced team at Sports Facilities Management.
The team at SFM is comprised of experts in facilities management from some of the world’s most successful organizations including Disney’s Wide World of Sports, the YMCA, and NBC Comcast Global Spectrum. We have the resources to manage all aspects facility development and operations, including human resources, business development, financial management, facility management, programming, event management, and marketing. Through our work in over 2,000 communities throughout the United States, we’ve generated hundreds of millions of dollars in annual direct economic impact. More importantly, we are living are mission to use sports as a vehicle for enhancing the lives of people in those communities.
Additionally, sports complexes working with SFM are a part of the SFM Network, a group of the nation’s premier sports tourism facilities. As a member of the SFM Network, sports venues have access to a large segment of the tournament and events marketplace, effective promotional support, and a group of the top thought leaders in the industry. This group consistently produces some of the travel sports industry’s best financial, economic, and qualitative results.
Outsourcing management and daily operations for your sports, recreation, or events venue is the turn-key solution that can open up the gateway to long-term success for your facility and produce unparalleled results. Not only does it allow municipalities and facility owners to focus on their core competencies, it provides you with a team of sports facility management and subject matter experts who can apply best practices to meeting and exceeding goals for these types of facilities.
At SFM, our comprehensive management services include:
Other than excellent service, event booking is arguably the most critical component of a sports tourism complex or multi-purpose recreation or event center. Understanding how to attract and retain the best events, negotiate mutually beneficial contracts and use agreements, and developing quality, lasting relationships with event owners are areas SFM has proven to be successful. Our managed facilities consistently outperform their economic impact forecasts and financial goals through.
We build knowledgeable and customer-centric teams that are the lifeblood of their venues. These highly-motivated workforces are committed to exhibiting leadership in all aspects of their respective roles and are led by general managers with an acute knowledge of the youth sports industry. We provide comprehensive training for all staff members, manage payroll and benefits, and resolve any HR issues.
Sports venues are living structures that require maintenance to ensure the safety of users and staff. Our team provides maintenance for all components of a sports facility and manages the procurement of all equipment. At SFM, our venue planning and management team has a wealth of experience in facility operations and can ensure the facility is designed to be operationally efficient. We also work to create an incredible guest experience, obtain the best equipment value and utility, and produces venues that are competitive in the sports tourism or local recreation marketplace.
Through our work with sports, parks, and recreation facilities across the United States, we have developed an understanding of program selection and implementation through sports participation rates, industry trends, and market research. We take that knowledge and design programming that can help you achieve your revenue, participation, and impact goals. Some programs are designed and run in-house while others are developed in partnership with local clubs and user groups. The program schedule is created to maximize the revenue per square foot and use of the facility.
Regardless of the mission, your sports facility needs to generate revenue to sustain viability. Every SFM facility begins with a five-year financial forecast called a pro forma. This document is a detailed look at the revenue, expenses, start-up and construction costs (if new build) and associated organizational chart. Our team uses this to build an operating business plan that serves as the roadmap for meeting financial goals and overcoming potential obstacles. We also create and maintain operational budgets and build timelines for capital improvements. We perform financial tracking and monitoring duties as well, including bookkeeping and managing tax requirements. Each month, our finance team produces detailed financial reporting for the ownership group or oversight committee. This ensures there is 100% transparency and alignment between owner and operator.
To grasp the collective attention of your audience, you must build an engaging brand the cuts to the heart of what consumers want from your venue. SFM provides a full suite of marketing services including brand and logo development, website project management, advertising, SEO, media relations, social media, email and event marketing. Marketing and branding strategy is lead by our subject matter experts in our Clearwater, FL based headquarters and executed locally in each facility. The team produces an annual marketing plan and 90-day action plans and budget allocations. The strategies are results-driven and leverage the collective expertise of our experienced staff.
The Hoover Metropolitan ‘Met’ Complex is a premier community recreation and sports tourism destination located in Hoover, a suburb of Birmingham, AL. SFM provides full-time management for their facilities including the Finley Center, an indoor sports facility and the baseball/softball complex. The engagement utilizes our experience to enhance their sports tourism strategy to continue to drive economic impact and community engagement.
To bring this elite youth sports facility to life, the teams at SFA and SFM were tapped for their extensive suite of services. This included an initial market analysis, program plan development, a detailed financial forecast and economic impact analysis, pre-opening development, and full-time facility management.
Caitlyn is a dynamic human resources professional with experience leading human resource processes for a 1,400-member company. Caitlyn’s ability to guide a workforce of high performers is instrumental to her role as Human Resources Business Partner at Sports Facilities Companies.
At SFC, Caitlyn works one on one with SF Network venues and our home office as a dedicated resource for their recruitment requirements. She manages the applicant tracking system and trainings, ensuring successful candidate pools for each venue.
Caitlyn identifies training needs and creates/procures a professional development curriculum. She also monitors training programs to ensure that training objectives are accomplished. In addition, she ensures regulatory compliance with legal requirements pertinent to employee management are met.
Since joining SFC, Caitlyn has increased candidate engagement with our application process from 65 to over 80 percent.
Notable Projects
Sports Facilities Management assessed all aspects of Elizabethtown’s (KY) existing sports and recreation assets, particularly the E-Town Sports Park and made recommendations of best practices for driving economic impact through events, tournaments, and recreation programming.
