Development work for the sport of gig rowing has continued throughout the difficult times surrounding Covid-19. Last year CPGA representatives presented Cornwall Council with a strategic document outlining the sport and opportunities for growth. Consequently, Cornwall Council awarded the CPGA a grant for to develop planning for the future of the sport. It is envisaged that a clearly communicated plan will enable local authorities, grant bodies and other stakeholders to identify opportunities for collaboration and investment in the sport.
Before making plans the CPGA Trustees felt it was most important to better understand the status and needs of Gig Clubs and a survey was issued. Thank you to everybody who put in such a lot of effort to fill in the first survey of our Clubs. There were 71 responses from 82 clubs which means that the findings have a good statistical reliability. Consultant, Kevin Brownridge of Perfect Moment along with Claire Tripp is currently analysing the data and will be discussing the findings in details with Trustees.
Some headline figures from the survey so far:
- The sport has a healthy balance of well-established clubs over 20 years old (47%) and 19% being new clubs less than five years old showing plenty of continuing growth.
- The main challenges clubs face are (in order):
- Attracting and retaining members
- Attracting sponsorship
- Lack of qualified coaches
- Need to improve quality of premises
- Lack of race coxes
- Overall clubs report they feel positive on facing challenges with only 14% scoring themselves low on how well they feel equipped to meet challenges.
- 84% of clubs felt quite or very positive about the future of their club.
- Clubs do have an important role to play in their communities with 80% of clubs stating they have worked with a range of other organisations.
- 78% of clubs have websites.
- 62% of clubs reported their turnover have grown by more than 5% over the past 5 years. Interestingly on 43% of clubs think they will grow turnover by more than 5% in next five years.
- In the last five years 28 clubs have invested more than £10k in GRP boats, and 43 have invested more than £10k in wooden boats (20 between £20k and £30k) – probably more than £1.25m in total.
- Members subscriptions form by far the highest proportion of income across the clubs with sponsorship and crowdfunding forming a relatively low proportion of income.
- Across the sport clubs are increasing their accessibility with; 39% of clubs catering for groups of people with mental health issues, 28% for people with learning disabilities, 27% for people with physical disabilities; 24% for people with hearing impairments and 22% for people with visual impairments. 34% of clubs stated that they did not cater for any groups with special requirements.
Once the survey figures have been analysed, they will be used alongside other supporting information to shape plans for the future.
In these unprecedented times, it has become even more pressing to identify ways to best support the gig clubs and individuals who make gig rowing happen across the country.