Winter is just around the corner and leisure facility staff across Australia and New Zealand are busily organising teams and indoor and outdoor sports leagues for the months ahead.
Fortunately, the Teams module in Envibe’s leisure centre management software makes the process easier. The optional module gives local councils, universities and privately-owned leisure centres everything they need to manage sports leagues for netball, basketball, tennis, football and a wide range of other sports.
Teams makes it easy to record team entries, take payments and book out courts, fields and other physical spaces within a facility for when matches are scheduled to take place. It also generates and updates fixtures, manages league tables, and displays results and competition standings to participants in every sports competition you run at your facilities.
Manage everything from the one system
One of the major benefits the Teams module offers is its ability to manage the financial side of sports competitions, as well as the logistics. Many organisations use a third-party software for league management and another for managing their members, but this can create headaches.
“Juggling multiple systems can be a hazardous approach because it leaves things wide open for mistakes,” says Craig Barraclough, Jonas Leisure Product Manager – Envibe.
“Not only is it time consuming but without any automation or checks and balances, it’s easy to forget to charge an individual or team, or to double charge them by mistake,” he says.
In addition to managing financials and leagues from within one system, Teams also includes the ability to set ‘fines’ for any teams that forfeit. This provides a disincentive for no-shows and a simple and up-front means of dealing with any team that forfeits a match.
Reserve courts and other spaces easily
Another star feature of the Teams module is its ability to help manage courts, fields and other spaces used for sports competitions. Teams functions from within the Envibe leisure centre software platform, allowing league administrators to reserve required courts and other spaces at the time they are required throughout the season. This allows facility managers to clearly see which spaces are available on any given day of the week.
“This is another feature most stand-alone league management systems lack and it’s a real strength of being able to use the Teams module from within Envibe,” Mr Barraclough says.
Communication made simple
When you’re running a sports league communication is key, and the Teams module has some helpful built in functionality.
This includes the ability to send an email or SMS direct from within the module to notify people of schedule changes or any postponements or cancellations. Participants can view upcoming fixtures, results and league points tables online, reducing the workload for league managers and ensuring a seamless experience for players and coaches.
“Being able to log in whenever you choose to view the live ladder and upcoming fixtures is great from a participants perspective and adds to the league experience,” Mr Barraclough says.
League tables: Participants can view league tables on the go.
Future plans – online bookings and real-time scoring
The Teams module is still being actively developed and there are big plans for the year ahead.
Online player registration will be coming later in the year, allowing participants to register themselves and their teams at their own convenience from home, work or wherever they may be.
Another improvement that is being considered is giving referees the ability to score games from courtside using a device that transmits scoring information direct to Envibe. This would update scores in real time and feed them straight into the Teams system ensuring results and updates to league tables were made instantly at the conclusion of each match, without having to be entered manually.
“Teams is a fantastic all-in-one competition and sports league management system and it will continue to evolve over time. I’m excited about what the rest of 2019 will bring, both for the Teams feature but also our Envibe leisure centre software suite,” Mr Barraclough says.
