Understanding human capacity and challenges for the transfer of community sport assets

Abstract

In the UK, transfer of local government operated leisure facilities to community groups has increased rapidly. However, there is limited knowledge on the capacity needs of groups as they acquire and manage such facilities or the challenges they face in the process. Using a qualitative case study design involving three community groups assuming management of sport facilities in one English local authority, and drawing on Alevizou, Alexiou, and Zamenopoulos’s (2016) expanded Community Capitals Framework, this paper shows the importance of the interrelationships between human, social, political and cultural capital of volunteers and paid staff in enabling successful community asset transfer. Our findings reveal that groups with strong social relationships and prior civic experience navigated the asset‐transfer process more effectively, whereas those lacking such networks relied on improvised learning and informal ties, heightening risks of volunteer burnout and organisational fragility. Only one of the groups benefited from sustained institutional support, underscoring how uneven external scaffolding compounds capacity gaps across community organisations and revealing the need for greater support. Our paper highlights the value of a theoretical framework that not only recognises individual forms of capital but also captures how their dynamic interplay mobilises collective resources to drive successful community asset transfers.