Can you guess - what is Britain’s fastest-growing sport?

Friday evening is approaching yet again. And it turns out that by participating in my regular Friday exercise I’m taking part in Britain’s fastest-growing sport. A sport that also claims to be “recession-proof”.

The car park at Goals Soccer Centre on Kirkstall Road in Leeds on a Friday night tells its own story. Busy. Sometimes packed.

I’ve been playing 5-a-side footie for some years now (actually we play 7-a-side) and it has been interesting to witness the rapid growth of this sports format in the last two to three years. The development of leagues, supplemented by much higher casual demand for friendly games means that Goals’ 17 pitches at my Leeds venue are often all in use.

I remember writing about the strategy and growth of Goals for a Business Cafe article a couple of years ago.

I was reminded of this by an interesting piece in the Sunday Times over the weekend, which profiled the two leading operators of 5-a-side football complexes in the UK.

The article makes very interesting reading and there is plenty in there of relevance to an A2 student looking at growth strategy.

I picked up several points from the article, including:

- How playing 5-a-side is much cheaper compared with a monthly gym membership - but provides a similar exercise outcome combined with better social interaction
- Demand for 5-a-side is thought to be relatively immune to a slowdown in consumer spending (this was the experience back in the last UK recession)
- Operators in this market are quite innovative and flexible about the choice of location for their new centres, each of which involves quite a substantial capital investment
- One approach to support growth has been to work closely with local stakeholders (e.g. schools), to develop a partnership method of building new centres