Non-professional sport academies in Spain: the parents perspective

Parents play a key role as decision makers within the young sport services (Nuviala and Alvarez, 2005), so to understand their opinion regarding non-professional academies would be a very interesting point for marketing and commercial purposes. A questionnaire was designed for the parents of the non-professional football and basketball academies participants-based and adapted from the study of Costa et al. (2004). After statistic validation, the resultant questionnaire was named non-professional academies parents perspective questionnaire (non-PA/PPQ), composed of five dimensions: a) coaches; b) information and satisfaction; c) facilities; d) development/intention; e) location/environment. On a first exploratory study with parents in Spain, results shown academy 'location', 'focus of the programs', on social and personal development aspects and 'coaches treatment' are the main parameters that determine in which academy parents will enrol their children.