ABSTRACT
The long-standing belief that sport and leisure opportunities bring benefits for individuals and communities has dominated the provision of leisure services throughout the later twentieth century. However, policy concerns in the 1990s focused on social exclusion, and funding was allocated from sources like City Challenge and the Single Regeneration Budget, and there was a growing concern ‘to assess whether there is any evidence of the social benefits that accrue from sport and leisure initiatives in pursuit of community development’ (Long and Sanderson, 2001).
