By Dan Plouffe
If you’re a baseball fan, then you probably aren’t a fan of analytics. The sport had turned so far into the hands of the data wizards that baseball had to implement new rules to limit their influence and give some power back to the bats to decide the outcome of games.
But if you’re a community sport leader, then you should be a huge fan of analytics, says Ottawa Sport Council executive director Marci Morris. Not so much to figure out where to place your shortstop, but there are so many other possible applications that could be beneficial to community sport that are often overlooked, she explains.
“I think it’s ignored, but I think it’s ignored because of a lack of time, and a lack of time to have the understanding of what to do with it and how to apply it,” Morris indicates. “It’s kind of like the [equity, diversity and inclusion] space in that everybody knew they wanted to do it, but they didn’t know where to start.
“I think analytics is the same thing. Unless you’ve got somebody on your board or your staff who understands how to collect it, most people are saying, ‘I know enough about [what it is], but I don’t know really where to start.'”
The Ottawa Sport Council will be holding its milestone 10th Ottawa Sport Summit on Saturday, Nov. 30 at the RA Centre’s Clark Hall, and the theme of the day will be: “Analytics in Community Sport: What Is It? Why Is It Important? How Data Can Enhance Your Operations and Elevate Participants’ Experiences.”
The event will feature speakers with expertise in data analysis, artificial intelligence and community sport, to help guide attendees on ways they can strengthen their organizations.
“It’s going to be looking at making improvements in a way that a lot of people didn’t realize was possible, just by looking at their data,” Morris highlights. “What we really want to achieve is: how can we make people’s lives easier through using data?”
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Morris gives several examples of how analytics could aid community sports groups. By analyzing participant demographics, a sports organization may be able to pursue a grant opportunity to increase the number of females, newcomers or other groups taking part.
“Maybe you need more funding to market to them. There are a lot of grants out there that you could be applying for something like that, but you need that data,” she outlines, while noting that it can be a big gain to find out who’s not participating.
“If they do the analysis of who their participants are and what neighbourhoods they come from, is there an untapped neighbourhood out there so that they could be increasing their registration?”
Another possible utilization could stem from satisfaction surveys that many sports groups send out at the end of their seasons. That could help identify a star coach who’s worthy of a promotion, or to learn what improvements could be made to retain volunteers or participants.
She shares an example of a coed sports organization that found females were dropping out as they got older and had children, so they offered leagues at different times and made babysitting available.
Tracking participation trends in order to optimize scheduling and reduce facility congestion is another potential benefit.
“There’s just so much you can do with the data, but you’ve got to collect it and analyze it,” Morris underlines. “You can, not only help your operations, but also really elevate your participants’ experience by just listening to people and doing something with that data that you collect. You can make some changes that might be small in your mind, but they’re huge in your participants’ mind.”
As always, the Ottawa Sport Summit is a free event to attend, with donations encouraged to the Ottawa Sport Council Foundation. Participants can register via SportOttawa.ca.
In addition to the analytics topic, the Summit also provides an opportunity to network with others involved in community sport.
“That’s always a big objective,” Morris adds. “It’s often the one opportunity that many people have to get out of their sport and to connect with other people in the sector.”
The 10th Summit will be the Ottawa Sport Council’s last one with Morris at the helm. She announced last month that she would soon be passing the torch after leading the OSC as executive director since it was founded.
Morris says she’s been thinking more about the event management details that go into planning the Summit than the fact that it will be a farewell of sorts.
“I always worry,” she smiles. “Like, what will we do if our technology fails? But no, I’m pretty excited, and I’m feeling really good about the topic. We really wanted to bring something new to the table, and I think the whole idea around data is so important.”