Social Value

Richard Shaw Chief Executive SAPCA

The New Zealand All Blacks have a mantra to ‘Leave the jersey in a better place than when you picked it up’. The idea behind it that each player is a custodian of the shirt, not an owner. It recognises that each player is connected to the players that played before them and connects to the history of the shirt – but also the responsibility to be a role model for future generations.

In June, members of the SAPCA Social Value Working Group spoke to an expert in the field, who described their view of social value as “being a good ancestor”. It is that which triggered the All Blacks’ example in my mind.

The Greeks offer us a gentler way of expressing the same sentiment: “a society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they shall never sit”.

A lot is made of the growth of social value across the sports industry. My question is whether we could feel more connected to social value on an emotional level if we viewed it in terms of our place in history – as the current custodians of the industry.

I say this because we already know that an emotional connection with an idea is far more powerful than one provided by logic-based reasoning.

In the coming months, SAPCA hopes to create tools to help capture and demonstrate the work that our members do around social value, as well as provide the data to back up claims on return on investment and net benefits. We hope that this work will support members and show our industry as the force for good that we know it to be. By highlighting the real impact our members have on communities – through the facilities they create – it might even create those all-important emotional connections.

In the coming months, SAPCA hopes to create tools to help capture and demonstrate the work that our members do around social value