Club Development Plans: Why Every Club Needs a Clear Vision

S3 Solutions
14 minutes ago
7 min read

The Importance of Grassroots Sports Clubs

Grassroots sports clubs play a vital role in communities offering far more than opportunities for physical activity. They serve as inclusive spaces where people of all ages and backgrounds can connect, build confidence, and develop lifelong skills. These clubs nurture local talent, often acting as the first stepping stone for athletes who go on to compete at higher levels. Just as importantly, they strengthen community cohesion by bringing neighbours together, fostering volunteering, and promoting shared values like teamwork, respect, and resilience. In many rural and urban areas alike, grassroots clubs are essential hubs of wellbeing and social connection, helping to support healthier, more engaged, and more vibrant communities.

Challenges Facing Clubs Today

However, it is clear that as sports clubs continue to go above and beyond, that many of them can get caught up in a web of conflicting ideas around what the future looks like for their club, their members and for the local community.

Why a Club Development Plan Is Needed

A club development plan can answer a lot of these questions and can allow clubs to refocus their attentions, put their members first in shaping the future and show the local community that they too have an integral role in moving the club forward.

Some of the reasons that clubs have identified a clear and pressing need for a club development are as follows:

There has been a period of instability with the club, with key personnel potentially moving on or retiring, thus losing vital experience and knowledge in critical roles within the club.
The club potentially has an important milestone coming up (50th anniversary for example) and want a plan produced to help celebrate the occasion and look to the future.
The club has encountered challenges in applying for grants, with funders unsure if they can trust clubs with large funds or multi-year funding due to the lack of a clear plan.
The club has discontent among its membership with members and even local residents expressing concern with communication and how key decisions are made.
The club has encountered challenges regarding internal issues including volunteer retention, community engagement and consultation, achievement on the pitch and coach education.
The club’s main decision makers are split around the direction and future of the club on and off the field of play.

What a Development Plan Can Achieve

A club development plan can provide clubs with the perfect opportunity to tackle some of the issues detailed above. It can play a pivotal role in helping them to refocus their attentions and remember what their objectives and aims as a club is.A club development plan can also improve communication internally within and the club and externally with key stakeholders including other groups in the local community. It will show residents that the club wishes to be transparent and open about their plans and how they want the community to be part of their plans, whether they are a member or not.A club development plan can also be an incredibly useful document to show potential funders that what you have applied for has been identified as a key priority or action in your plan and it will show funders that it has been identified by internal and external engagement, thus showing it is actually needed!

Finally, a club development plan is integral in providing a realistic timeframe of achievable actions for the club and this can help members to take stock of what they have achieved, reflect on achievements and give them vigour and enthusiasm for achieving new goals, all focused on making the club and their community a better place!

Reflecting on the Club’s Current Position

An initial key consideration for a club development plan is to initially reflect on where the club has come from. Maybe the club has achieved some incredible goals and achievements on and off the field of play in recent months and years and wants to capitalise on this success or maybe the club it at a crossroads and members feel stuck in a rut and need a new plan that everyone is accountable for, allowing them to see small achievable steps on how to drive the club forward once again.

The Importance of Robust Consultation

However, any good club development plan is only as good as its robust levels of consultation. It is crucial that those shaping the content of the club development plan are representative of all facets of the club and that the wider community has a chance to have their say on what the club does well and what they can develop in the future. Any goals that are agreed by the club and the community need to be achievable. There is no point in a small grassroots club wanting to build a 500-seater grandstand when there are no toilets on a site! Think small, but realistic goals to start with.

Aligning with Governing Bodies and Local Authorities

Club development plans also need to ensure that they align with policies and strategies implemented by governing bodies and local authorities. This not only shows the wider community that you are keen to positively contribute to external policies, but in many instances, councils are looking for clubs to collaborate and work with them to achieve some of their goals and objectives set out in their own strategies. Speaking to club development officers at councils and governing bodies is a really useful exercise and it can help to bounce ideas off each other.

External Consultation

Engaging with your respective governing body is a very useful exercise with regards to external consultation and this should be followed up with semi-formal consultation with key stakeholders who use the club facilities or may be keen to do so. This can include schools, local charities, youth groups and community groups. Most effective ways of facilitating this semi-formal consultation includes phonecalls, online meetings, open evenings, community surveys and potential letters of support or expressions of intent to use facilities.

Internal Consultation

Internal consultation is also pivotal to any club development plan. Your members are the soul of your club and by including them in consultation and discussions around the future of their club can not only make them feel included and have a key role to play in the development of the club, but inspire them to commit to a longer term commitment to stay with the club to help achieve some of these exciting goals.It is crucial that with any internal consultation, all sections of a club have a voice. If you are holding a discussion forum or open evening, ensure every section or facet of the club is in attendance ie…representatives from youth, senior, girls’, ladies, grounds staff, those who help with catering and board members. Everyone should feel like they have an opportunity to state their opinion and it is important for those chairing the discussions to ensure that board members or senior representatives of the club do not dominate conversation. An easy way of gauging the thoughts of everyone on a certain topic could be giving everyone some ‘post it’ notes and let them add their thoughts to a certain topic by adding it to a flipchart paper with the subject title at the top! This way everyone has a say and has a voice!

Producing a Clear and Accessible Development Plan

Club development plans should always be clear, easy to understand and have realistic and achievable actions which can be mapped and monitored for progress. The club development plan doesn’t need to 40 pages, it can be condensed into just a handful of pages and this way it is easy to read, easy to understand and the goals are clear! Some key tips for presenting your club development plan are as follows:

Before you launch it, have someone you trust read it and check it out for quality of content and ensure it makes sense. This might be someone from your governing body!
Don’t launch the draft without ensuring decision makers in the club are in agreement that it reflects the journey everyone has been on in producing the plan.
Make sure it is colourful, has lots of pictures and shows the club has a happy place which is open and inclusive to all.
If you are ready to launch then make a big deal about it and host a launch evening and invite local politicians, the local press and people from your governing body to celebrate the launch of this plan.
Once you have launched your plan, don’t hide it in a filing cabinet or leave it locked in a boardroom. Make sure it is visible around the club and digital copies are easy to source on websites and social media channels!

Ensuring the Plan Leads to Action

Club development plans can look aesthetically pleasing and represent the club in a great light, but it is crucial that what is written down is actioned and progressed through by all in the club.Goals and objectives identified within the action plan should be discussed at committee meetings and quarterly or even monthly review meetings could take place to track the progress of the objectives or goals. If a goal is delayed, then reflect on when and how it is possible to achieve said goal and this should prevent unnecessary pressure and rushing through a goal and perhaps not completing it properly!

A Working Document for the Future

Club development plans should be key working documents that help shape the short-term future of the club. They should clearly show funders and governing bodies that you are focused on improving things on and off the pitch and that you are committed to having a lasting impact not only on your members but also torking documents that help shape the short-term future of the club. They should clearly show funders and governing bodies that you are focused on improving things on and off the pitch and that you are committed to having a lasting impact not only on your members but also the wider local community.

Want to see the impact of development planning in action? Explore some of the sports clubs we work with: CLIENTS | s3solutions