It’s a new year, and with that comes new year’s resolutions. Hey, we’ve all made them. Some are easy to keep. Most are easy to break. You see it every year — the campus gym fills to the brink with newbie exercisers every January, but by March, only the fitness die-hards are left. Good thing your athletes have their own weight room, right?
While it can be tough to keep some new year’s resolutions, the beginning of a new year is still a great time to reflect and refresh — particularly when it comes to preparing athletic facilities for the busy spring semester.
Here’s how facilities directors can resolve to start the new year right:
Can’t renovate? Focus on a refresh.
We get it. Full-scale facilities renovations are ridiculously expensive — not to mention they can shut down parts of your whole athletic operation for months at a time. Plus, who wants all that construction going on right now, during the chilly winter months?
If your facilities look like they could use a little TLC (or if you’ve got renovations planned a few years down the line) a banner refresh can be a great solution for your indoor facilities in the meantime. Team banners and wall graphics are elegant ways to cover up wear and tear. They’ll also help draw attention away from parts of your facilities that may be showing their age.
Revamp with recognition.
High-traffic hallways looking empty and dingy? Don’t let your fans spend another season glumly shuffling from the parking garage to their gym seats — give them an experience that celebrates your institution’s athletic heritage.
Recognition boards can be used for everything from showcasing your top players and Hall of Fame stars to thanking donors and military alumni members. Visitors will take pride in your history, and current athletes will dream of seeing their names on the boards.
Update to impress.
Of course, it’s not just your fans and visitors you’ll need to impress this next semester. There’s a whole new freshman class coming in for tours, and that includes potential new athletes. You don’t want them thinking you’ve got a second-rate operation just because your signage is a bit out of date!
Before touring athletes arrive, it’s easy to put your best foot forward with a quick update to championship banners in the gym, motivational signs in the locker room, or strength record boards in the weight room.
Refreshing, revamping, and updating facility signage should be an easy resolution for any facilities director to keep. It’ll keep your athletic complex looking lively as fans venture through to attend the season’s games, and it’ll go far in impressing new athletic recruits touring your campus this spring. When you focus on facilities first this year, it’ll be sure to help everything else fall into place. And isn’t that what resolutions are supposed to be for?