Athletic Facility Safety Inspections, are they important?

by George Bernardon - member of the NIAAA Sports Turf Advisory Committee

In recent years the awareness for safety and risk management has increased immensely. When athletes use fields or spectators come to watch the last thing that is on their mind is the condition of the facility that they are visiting. But with this increased awareness we in the industry must be more vigilant in providing the safest venue possible. By doing so, an environment is created that projects a positive image of our facility and how it is run.

When researching information for this article I, contacted an Insurance Underwriter and the following is a quote from their manual, “Assess the insured’s inspection and maintenance program for fields and facilities. How thorough and frequent are the inspections, how often is preventative maintenance performed? If a checklist is used to conduct routine inspections what are the qualifications of those conducting the inspections – it also went on to say the same for those performing the maintenance. Are there records of the inspections, recommendations for correction of deficiencies and are there work orders that demonstrate that the work was performed.”

This is important because while no venue can be 100% risk free there are steps that can be undertaken to ensure that every reasonable effort has been implemented that will help eliminate their potential. By training our personnel and being proactive when they conduct routine maintenance or consulting professionals for inspections, we can improve our risk management. Also if we develop management plans for our fields and implement preventative maintenance on our structures we can greatly reduce the chance of risk. It is also imperative that records of all inspections, work order requests and repairs be maintained. If something should occur it can be tracked or in a worse case scenario it could be proved that every reasonable effort was exercised to prevent it.

A good start is by conducting routine safety inspections. Use an athletic complex safety check off sheet. (Available in LTC 516 course) By using this sheet and being proactive in your operation your athletic complex will provide a safe venue for all that use it. Another way is to develop a positive working relationship with your maintenance team. Get them to understand the importance of having a safe venue and that you support their efforts. Offer to assist them in their training, be it financial support or just a pat on the back.

Good risk management involves everyone, listen when visitors, athletes or coaches make comments about conditions that they have observed.

Eliminate the obvious – here you can see that down the right field line there is a playground with a child on the swings. This playground was less than 200’ from home plate. What is worse is that the parents are sitting on the picnic table just outside foul territory watching.

Below, replacing the split board on the bench would eliminate any potential risk. A routine safety inspection would also point this out.

Aerating and overseeding would eliminate the severe compaction of this field. It does not matter that the field is over used, the compaction must be reduced.

Repairing the hole in this field before the spring season will eliminate any potential injury.