How can you improve the management of your sports facilities by measuring visitor numbers?

The management of sports facilities is a key issue for local authorities. Access to sports activities covers social, health and well-being issues, and local authorities are required to facilitate access to sports facilities for all their residents.

From this point of view, crowding is a key issue.

During this summer's heatwave, for example, some municipalities closed their swimming pools to residents of neighbouring towns in order to preserve slots for their own residents.

Crowd management also raises questions about operating costs and user comfort.

How does a crowd management solution contribute to better management of your facilities?

A crowd management solution to better manage your sports facilities: what are the benefits?

Controlling operating costs

In France, 90% of swimming pools are managed by local authorities, with the remaining 10% being delegated to public service providers.

They are responsible for public service obligations such as teaching swimming, particularly in schools, and are largely funded by local authorities.

Controlling the operating costs of facilities is a pressing issue in the context of the energy crisis we are experiencing in 2022. The recent decision by public service contractor Vert Marine to close 30 swimming pools in protest against rising energy prices highlights the urgency of the issue.

Limiting operating costs is all the more important given that access to facilities is a social issue. The government has made ‘learning to swim’ a priority. And, given the public service mission of swimming pools, it is difficult to imagine passing on the increase in energy bills to users.

Swimming pools, which are often heated with gas, are very energy-intensive facilities. Managing visitor numbers can be one way of reducing energy bills. For example, a visitor management solution can help identify off-peak times in order to reduce the hours of operation of the facilities.

Measuring visitor numbers also makes it possible to adjust staffing levels to the actual number of visitors. This allows you to offer an appropriate level of supervision and safety for swimming without overstaffing.

The use of a people counting solution also helps to anticipate off-peak periods so that cleaning and maintenance operations can be scheduled during these times, thus limiting the impact on the venue's turnover.

Improving user comfort

Crowd management also offers several notable benefits in terms of user comfort.

By adopting a people counting system, you can accurately measure footfall and communicate with your audience in real time. This allows users to visit during less busy times to avoid queues at reception and in the changing rooms.

Smoothing visitor flows also provides everyone with a better overall experience. Less waiting, more space in the different areas of the venue, more time spent actually using the facilities, etc. In addition, staff are more available for users and safety is also better ensured.

Another advantage of crowd management is that you can combine it with a booking module. In the case of a swimming pool, you can give users the option of booking a time slot and even a lane for a given period.

Finally, the solution gives you an overview of attendance at organised activities. This provides you with accurate and reliable data to decide whether to extend the time slots for successful activities, schedule new ones or, conversely, discontinue activities that are less popular.

See feedback from the Paris swimming pool network

Facilitating a sustainable development approach

Improving user satisfaction helps to build loyalty and thus ensure better profitability for facilities.

Crowd management can help to optimise attendance during busier periods. It is also a way of reducing energy costs by concentrating consumption on times when it is really necessary.

From a sustainable development perspective, one of the challenges is precisely to adjust actual consumption in heating and air conditioning to usage. To do this, you need to be able to cross-reference your energy data with footfall data in order to make the right decisions.

Finally, in swimming pools, there is the issue of water savings. According to legislation, 30 litres of water per bather must be renewed every day. Until now, this has been based on estimates, which are generally overestimated. With accurate metering, you can renew the water according to actual consumption. This allows you to save water and also reduce associated costs (treatment, water heating). In this area, Affluences works hand in hand with Onsen.

Optimise calendar management

Another challenge for sports facilities, managing slots between different users, can also be addressed by adopting a visitor management solution.

Municipal facilities need to allocate slots for different groups:

• Schools

• Sports clubs and associations

• Individuals

A solution such as Affluences gives everyone visibility on facility occupancy and allows for centralised space booking.

Affluences, an all-in-one solution for sports facility management

Key features

The Affluences solution offers several features to meet the challenges of sports facility management:

• User counting by lane and/or space

• Online slot booking (centralised between associations, individuals and schools)

To do this, Affluences draws on its expertise in tracking visitor data. Not only can we centralise your existing data sources, we can also collect more granular data to refine the counting process.

For example, we can use data from your access gates to count entries and exits. But this only provides an overview. If we want a view by space or by lane, for swimming pools, we supplement your system by installing counters or sensors.

All data is then collected, centralised and analysed on our platform. This gives you access to dashboards that provide complete visibility of the attendance at your facilities.

We have also developed a predictive module that allows you to anticipate the number of visitors to your facilities. This enables you to better organise the use of your facilities based on reliable data.

Finally, we offer an online booking feature for better synchronisation between the different types of users of the venue.

Are you responsible for managing sports facilities? Do you want to balance the challenges of user comfort, limiting operating costs and sustainable development?

Today, to make the right decisions and ensure the sustainability of your facilities and your public service mission, you need to rely on reliable and accurate data.

Would you like to learn more about our crowd management solution? Feel free to contact our team for a full demonstration