Sportivate - 3v3 Basketball

Sportivate funding recently supported a successful 3v3 basketball project in Oxford.

The 3v3 Basketball concept came about following discussions between Oxford City Council Sports Development Team and the Oxfordshire Sports Partnership Core Team regarding participation figures for basketball in Oxford.

The Sports Development Team utilised local demographics data and the Sport England Market Segmentation tool to develop a project that would have the highest impact in terms of physical numbers playing the sport.

Alongside consultation on the ground, it was recognised that the target audience had a variety of reasons for not participating including cost, time, work commitments and language barriers.

With this knowledge the idea was formed to potentially develop a 3v3 league addressing the above barriers and working in specific areas of the city where there was a large community of people who may be interested in Basketball (Eastern European and Chinese/Asian communities).

Oxford Hoops, already a club with a diverse membership, attended Multi Use Games Areas (MUGA’s) over the period of four weeks to determine the need for a league. They completed face to face qualitative research to back up the numerical data already collated. The research confirmed that the best local offer was a 3v3 league split into two age groups and offered in 4 areas of the city.

Sportivate funding allowed the project to

• Improve the level of marketing
• Provide incentives to support retention
• Help remove barriers to participants being sustained in activity
• Pay for the coaching sessions
• Pay for equipment

Key Successes

• 112 participants registered to attend
• 94 retained with 80% attendance
• Oxford Hoops recruited 50 new players and created 3 new teams from the 3v3 league participants
• Work has been undertaken with large employers to release players for National League matches
• 4 areas of the city had regular, competitive sport taking place throughout the summer.

Partnership Working

The key partners involved were;

• Oxford City Council Sports Development Team
• Oxford City Council Street Sports Team
• England Basketball
• Oxford Hoops Basketball Club
• Oxfordshire Sports Partnership Core Team

Between them these partners brought coaches, facilities, equipment, finance and experience to the project which ensured it success.

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For more information on Sportivate click here