A multidisciplinary team of researchers and practice partners has been awarded a €800,000 grant from ZonMW to conduct research and experiments to see how changes in prices can influence participation in sport. The 3-year ‘SPRINTS’ project will start in November 2024, led by the Academy of Sport and Exercise at HAN University of Applied Sciences. The ultimate goal is to contribute to an affordable sports offer that better meets the needs of all Dutch people.
In the SPRINTS project (Sports Pricing Research to INcrease Sports Participation), the HAN, Radboud University and the Mulier Institute, together with a large number of practice partners, are investigating the way in which prices influence sports and exercise participation. By doing so, the researchers hope to discover which pricing strategies sports providers can use to get more people to play sports in the Netherlands.
They also want to know how financial measures such as discounts or rewards can help more people take up sports. The consortium focuses mainly on the needs, values and experiences of (potential) athletes and other stakeholders, working together with various organisations and experts to come up with valuable insights.
Project leader Willem de Boer (HAN): ‘If we better understand how prices influence sports participation, we can find ways to make sport more accessible, especially for people who have less to spend. The affordability of sport seems to be increasingly at risk for several vulnerable groups. The government's planned VAT increase and dire financial situation of many municipalities make this problem even more urgent. The studies carried out in the SPRINTS project should lead to practical advice, concrete policy tools and new scientific insights, which can actually further increase the affordability and value of sport for society.’
Why this research?
The social value of sport and exercise is great. But there is a large (and growing) group of people on the sidelines who do not feel attracted by the offer, or find it too expensive. There is hardly any knowledge on how sports provision can become more affordable and better match needs, also because it is linked to many different and complex factors.
The SPRINTS project should help sports providers improve the affordability and quality of sports provision, and provide policymakers with new insights to make sports more accessible to economically vulnerable groups.
Unique approach
The originality of SPRINTS lies in its multidisciplinary approach to the price issue in sport, taking into account both economic and social factors. Different, highly diverse, research methods and experiments are applied. The research explicitly focuses on the needs, experiences and values of stakeholders, including groups of non-athletes, in relation to sport and exercise provision. Experiential experts on poverty are also involved in the project.
Consortium partners
In addition to the three knowledge institutions mentioned above, the SPRINTS consortium consists of: Rotterdam and Tiel municipalities, It's My Life, Jeugdfonds Sport en Cultuur, NOC*NSF, Platform Ondernemende Sportaanbieders, province of Gelderland, Samen Presteren, Sport Fryslân, Sportief Besteed Groep, Sportservice Noord-Brabant, Stronger out of Poverty, foundations CPOB, OPO-R and SKOR (of the Prins Willem-Alexander School & Prins Mauritsschool, the Montessori School and primary school De Floriant, respectively, all in Tiel), Tien Organisatieadvies, Topsport Gelderland/Sportief Groot Worden, Utrecht University, Vereniging Sport en Gemeenten and the Adult Fund for Sport and Culture. It also collaborates with Kenniscentrum Sport en Bewegen and Sport Data Valley. The total budget of the SPRINTS project is almost 1.3 million euros and is partly made possible by a grant of 800,000 euros from the ZonMw programme MOOI in Beweging, which is funded by the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport and NOC*NSF. SPRINTS also works closely with the consortia ‘Wij(k) in Beweging’ (on social inequality in sports participation) and ‘Het geheim van de hotspots’ (on the utilisation of sports facilities), which are also funded by MOOI in Beweging.
For more information, please contact Dr Willem de Boerwillem.deboer [at] han.nl ((willem[dot]deboer[at]han[dot]nl;) 06-13076024), sports economist Hogeschool van Arnhem en Nijmegen and project leader SPRINTS.
16 September 2024 by HAN Sport and Exercise