FUNDAMENTALS OF RECREATION FACILITIES

FUNDAMENTALS OF RECREATION FACILITIES

Many activities that are part of everyday life take place in some type of facility. In this book, facility particularly refers to the environments where leisure activities occur. Facilities can include naturally occurring resources, such as park areas and lakes, or they can be man-made structures, such as museums and health clubs. A facility can be indoors or outdoors. It can be as simple as a playground or as complex as an amusement park. The point is that facilities can take many forms, and they are of great importance to recreation professionals. To understand more about recreation facility management and its importance, we must first examine the fundamentals of the facilities themselves, including structures, facility management, extensiveness, uniqueness, and complexity.
Structures Recreation facilities exist in two broad categories of structures. One category is natural environments, where little about the attraction has been constructed by people. The other category of recreation facilities includes man-made structures that are conceived, planned, designed, constructed, and occupied by a management system to deliver a recreation product.

Man-Made Structures

A man-made facility is a designated area that facilitates a process, operation, or course of activities and is conceived, planned, and built by people to deliver a particular recreation product. Man-made structures can be either indoors or outdoors and designed to deliver a specific product. An outdoor man-made facility can range from local playgrounds or tennis courts to large water parks and sport stadiums. An indoor man-made structure also can be observed in many forms, ranging from bowling alleys or fitness centers to indoor arenas or major resorts. Some structures may consist of both indoor and outdoor facilities, such as a swimming pool with a concession building and locker room. Structures can be multifaceted with many designated areas for many activities.

Facility Management

Creating and maintaining a recreation facility as a functional space requires significant management effort. A variety of responsibilities and functions help make a product available. Of particular importance is the facility, or space, where that product is produced or delivered. Synthesizing, or bringing the recreation product and space together as a useful experience for the user, forms the basis of recreation facility management, a support process aimed at enhancing the success of the core product and its extensions. A more direct definition of recreation facility management is coordinating a physical workplace with the employees and goals of the agency while integrating the principles of management, architecture, and behavioral and engineering sciences. Facility management is just one component of the recreation environment, functioning in an indirect but crucial fashion by providing significant support to the delivery of the product.

Cost Savings

Maximizing revenue while minimizing expenses has become a demanding requirement in all areas of the recreation profession. All costs related to the operation of recreation facilities have come under scrutiny by facility managers, including utilities, maintenance, labor, and facility financing. Close analysis of these expenses has resulted in far-reaching implications in terms of maintaining environments and equipment. The concept of sustainability, which has already been discussed, also has cost implications. By finding ways to more efficiently use resources, facility managers can lower the costs associated with operating a facility.
In short, recreation agencies are required to be financially accountable for their operations. Financial inefficiency can result in lost income, decreasing profits, and negative perceptions of an agency.

By Ajay Bisht