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Technical standardization in sports facilities and equipment

TECHNICAL STANDARDIZATION IN SPORTS FACILITIES AND EQUIPMENT. INTRODUCTION

Technical standardisation in sports is the activity of drawing up and reviewing technical standards/specifications in the field of sport. It is a voluntary technical process whose objective is to improve the quality of products, services and companies, promote safety, allow the interchangeability of products and reduce barriers to trade. It is a tool to achieve quality while considering safety. Technical standardisation is constituted by the technical standards/specifications for this purpose, which reflect the suitability, adaptation to function and safety of the products by means of a series of technical requirements to be verified by test methods.

According to the last national census of sports facilities in 2005, published by the Superior Sports Council, there are 79,059 sports facilities in Spain. With regard to the 1975 census, which counted 18,088, sports facilities in Spain have increased by 77.18%. These data reflect the significant change that has occurred in our country over the last 30 years. This change can be traced back to Article 43.3 of the Spanish Constitution of 1978, which states that “the public authorities will promote physical education and sport” and Article 148.1.19 of the Constitution, which provides that “the Autonomous Communities may assume competences in sports matters, in accordance with the provisions of their respective Statutes”. This strong intervention of the public authorities in the promotion of sports practice in recent years is reflected in the fact that in our country 65.50% of sports facilities are publicly owned compared to 34.50% that are privately owned.

Thus, in recent years not only has there been an increase in the number of sports facilities, but there have also been very significant changes in the sports habits of the Spanish population. According to data from the latest survey on sports habits (García Ferrando 2006), the competitive nature of the traditional sports model has changed to the point that 77% of the practice of sport in our country is a recreational practice related to the promotion and maintenance of health, compared to only 11% of the practitioners of competitive sport.

These important changes can be illustrated by taking into account, for example, the evolution of the number of indoor swimming pools in our country. These facilities have increased by 305% compared to the last national census of sports facilities in 1997.

In this context, some Autonomous Governments carry out master plans on the planning and construction of sports infrastructures cofinanced by the Municipalities and whose main objective is to balance the sports offer in their respective territories trying to avoid excessive concentrations of facilities in the urban and metropolitan areas of the large cities and to meet the needs of the population of municipalities located in less favored areas.

In short, the current public and private managers of sports facilities in Spain face great complexity in the performance of their work, namely, greater diversity of users and greater demands for quality, safety and accessibility to facilities, new sports and sports modalities and greater demands for the profitability of the facilities. All this in an increasingly complex technical and regulatory regulatory framework. In addition, it is currently extremely difficult for managers or managers of sports facilities to know and apply the existing technical regulations, since in most cases it is not easy to locate the technical regulations of application due, among others, to the fact that it is either assigned in different technical committees of standardization or there is no technical regulations to meet their needs.

For their part, the professionals involved in the process of design, planning, management and maintenance of sports facilities have highlighted the need to harmonize the regulatory and technical framework of sports facilities in our country. Among other reasons to provide your information and an updated and valid qualification for the entire Spanish territory, regardless of the region or Community in which such qualification occurs.

It is in this context and in response to the request made by the Associations and Business Organizations of the industrial field of sport, that the Superior Sports Council proposed and subsequently developed the MAID Project (Mejora and Armonization of the Instalaciones Deportiva Española) in which, one of its derivations was the reactivation and reorganization of the Technical Committees of Standardization of UNE (Spanish Standardization) Spanish Association of Standardization, in the field of sports around the technical committee of standardization. Sports facilities and facilities”

It is important to point out that for Spanish facilities it is of great interest to develop technical regulations for the management and maintenance of sports facilities as well as for equipment for elderly people in the fields of physical activity, equipment that in our territory are being increasingly used and on which there is no specific regulation of application.

In this sense, the committee must consider aspects for the development and analysis of the processes that take place in sports facilities and the services provided in them, regardless of the ownership of the facility (public or private). These processes are:

  • The design, strategic planning of the facilities and their management.
  • The purchase and provision of material and equipment.
  • The evaluation, inspection and surveillance.
  • The replenishment and maintenance.

In this way it is intended to meet the regulatory needs of the agents involved in the field of sport as a whole, regardless of whether they are equipment manufacturers, facility managers, athletes, etc.

The C.S.D. He chairs the aforementioned Technical Committee for Standardization UNE/CTN 147 “Sports. Equipment and sports facilities” of which the Secretary is the Institute of Biomechanics of Valencia (IBV). Its structure is configured through the following Subcommittees and working group:

  • SC 2 Sports, Playgrounds and other recreational equipment.
  • SC 3 Sports surfaces.
  • SC 4. Sports facilities (facilities for spectators)
  • GT 1. Management and maintenance of sports facilities and venues.

In this way, all the agents affected are included, who can participate in these subcommittees and be part of the UNE/CTN 147 Committee, currently composed of:

Public Administration:

  • Higher Sports Council (C.S.D. ), Autonomous body of the Ministry of Culture and Sport
  • Autonomous Communities (Council or area responsible for sports)
  • Town Halls (Department or area responsible for sports)

Associations and companies:

  • Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP)
  • Federation of Associations of Sports Managers of Spain (FAGDE)
  • Institute of Biomechanics of Valencia (IBV)
  • Association of Equipment Manufacturers, Chemicals and Pool Builders (ASOFAP)
  • National Federation of Sports Facility Entrepreneurs (FNEID)
  • Spanish Sports Association (ADESP)
  • Catalan Sports Industry Cluster (INDESCAT)
  • Sports federations that wish to participate
  • Companies manufacturing and installing sports equipment
  • Companies manufacturing and installing sports surfaces
  • Companies manufacturers and installers of swimming pool equipment
  • Companies manufacturing and installing facilities for spectators

Other entities

  • Universities with workgroups related to sport.
  • Technology and R&D centers related to sport.
  • Accredited inspection entities

The possible voluntary incorporation of public administrations, associations, companies, entities and experts in their personal capacity who wish to participate is always open.

There are currently national representatives in some of the working groups of the international committees (CEN and ISO). In addition to maintaining this group of experts, there is the opportunity to nominate other national representatives, since it is vitally important that from Spain we have professional experts in sports that can value the interests of our Autonomous Communities and our companies in the European Standardisation Committees. It is worth remembering that once a standardization process has been initiated from Europe (CEN committees) from the different countries we can and must collaborate in the normative development since once the European normative document is approved, the national standardization bodies will only be able to transpose the standard at national level. It is therefore important to act on the processes directly at European level. The objective is to carry out a proactive and not merely reactive international policy.