SAPCA ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2025

Sustainability and sports facility funding were among the topics that featured heavily at this year’s SAPCA Annual Conference, held in February

The SAPCA Annual Conference took place on Thursday 27 February 2025 at Emirates Old Trafford in Manchester. Featuring an educational programme of speakers supported by an exhibition showcasing the products and services of SAPCA members, the conference is one of the sports and play construction sector’s main events of the year.

Leadership

The keynote speech at this year’s conference was delivered by former England cricket captain and commentator, David Gower OBE. Offering his views on leadership, Gower compared the role and responsibilities of elite sports captains to those of business leaders. He did this by injecting his own experiences into the talk – with more than a sprinkling of humour and wit.

“Just as in business leadership, leading a sports team out as captain often means signing up to targets and goals which can then be used to measure success,” Gower said.

“As a leader you accept that there will be challenges and obstacles standing in your way to that success. It is then down to you to get the best out of your team and help them to tackle those challenges so that the entire team can benefit.

“One such challenge I had to deal with, as England captain in the 1980s, was to try and motivate my team to face the tremendous West Indies fast bowling attack. I say motivate – keeping batsmen alive was probably more accurate.”

Politics

Gower’s keynote speech was followed by Andy Reed OBE, founder of Sports Think Tank and former Labour MP, offering the inside track on the Labour Government’s plans for sport and play. According to Reed, the current government was very aware of the importance of physical activity – and especially how the UK population was trailing behind its European peers in activity levels.

“Prior to the election last summer, the National Sector Partners Group (NSPG) for sport did a good job in lobbying the parties,” Reed said. “They highlighted how the UK ranks 12th out of 15 comparable European nations for levels of physical activity. This was accompanied by a call on the main political parties and their leaders to pledge to make the UK the most active nation in Europe.

“They asked for a commitment from all parties to champion growth in the sector and support cross-departmental working to realise savings of up to £1 billion in healthcare spending linked to inactivity.

“The difficulty faced by the government is, of course, that while there is now recognition of the importance of physical activity across several departments, there is limited funding available.”

After Reed, it was time for Sport England chair, Chris Boardman CBE, to take to the stage. Boardman called on the sector to “be on the right side of history” when it comes to environmental sustainability. You can read more about Boardman’s speech on page XX.

Delegates also heard from Owen Faunt & Matt Bonney from GCP Architects – who offered an architect’s viewpoint to Mandatory Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) – and Jack Sallabank, Founding Director of Sport+.

Manchester set the stage for SAPCA’s inspiring 2025 Conference

Importance of play

To close the event, Eugene Minogue offered delegates an update on the state of the play sector. He said that, while play had become a somewhat forgotten topic in government during the past 15 or so years – judging by the dismal track record of past governments – it was very much back on the item list with the current one.

He highlighted a debate led by Tom Hayes MP (the first on play in the past 17 years) and the positive moves towards the Labour government adopting Play Sufficiency Legislation.

“A lot has happened since I spoke at the SAPCA Conference last year,” Minogue said, referencing his appearance at the 2024 edition of the event. “We’ve had a new government and – while things haven’t changed radically yet – we are beginning to see a positive shift.

“Play England and sector partners stand ready to support the government in addressing the decline in children’s play by developing a new, cross departmental national play strategy. This strategy would ensure that play sufficiency legislation is brought into meaningful practice, and that England becomes a child-friendly country where all children have freedom to play at home, at school, in parks and public spaces.”

He added that there is plenty to do to reverse the decline in play, reminding delegates of the stark data which shows how the time spent playing outdoors has declined by 50% in a generation – and that spending on play facilities in England fell by 44% between 2017-18 and 2020-21.

“Play is important,” he said. ”And it’s time that we give children their childhood back.”

Closing notes

The Conference was followed by the SAPCA Awards Dinner, completing a day which offered delegates plenty of networking opportunities. You can read more about the awards and the winners on page XX.

This year’s edition was the first to be held at Emirates Old Trafford and the third different venue for the SAPCA Conference in three years – following St George’s Park (2023) and Leicester TIgers’ Mattioli Woods Welford Road Stadium (2024). According to Richard Shaw, work is already underway to confirm the details – including the date and venue – of next year’s conference.

“Manchester was a great venue for us and the feedback from delegates has been great,” Shaw said. “The conference programme offered some great food for thought across some key topics. It was also great to have Chris Boardman join us and to offer some insight into Sport England’s work around sustainability.

“We are now finalising details for next season’s Conference, so watch this space!”