Sport is for health, therefore safe and comfortable sports environments and facilities must be provided to ensure health and happiness. To guide public and private sport venues to sustainable operation and assist local governments to build a complete sports environment, the Sports Administration (SA) has compiled three reference guidebooks for space application and design planning for three kinds of popular indoor sport venues namely fitness centers, rhythm/dance/aerobics classes and indoor swimming pools as reference when drawing up the required organization, manpower, funding and management and maintenance plan for operation.

In the past, a case occurred where gym equipment was placed too close together and when a person was using weightlifting equipment and took the weight off one side of the bar, the weight on the other side hit and injured an adjacent gym user. This shows that gym flow lines, equipment position and sports floor design etc. require professional planning. Spatial arrangement for various sports and the space that needs to be left for equipment movement are explained in detail with text and illustrations in the Sports Administration guidebooks.

In recent years, sport for all has become increasingly popular. To create a complete sports environment, in the guidebooks the SA introduces related sports facilities operating condition assessment, simple business solicitation and outsourcing, facility and equipment arrangement and environment planning, space drawing symbols and simple construction cost analysis, manpower management mechanism and maintenance planning etc., It provides local governments with a way to quickly grasp the administrative procedures to be handled when they set about planning related sports facilities to make sure facilities meet the needs of local people, operate sustainably and do not become idle. Local governments can also refer to the handbooks and guide individuals, groups, and enterprises to complete related facilities establishment and operation assessment .

SA figures for 2021 show that 80.2% of the population in Taiwan engage in sport and exercise, with 33.9% of people regularly doing sport and exercise, showing an increase and that the people of Taiwan have become accustomed to using sport and exercise to enhance their physical and mental health. To raise the service quality of public and private sports venues, the SA will continue to implement the “public sports Environmont Improvement Plan” to provide subsidies to local governments to improve all types of sports venue and build and renovate citizens sports centers. 

It is hoped that through these three handbooks and related sports facility reference guidebooks issued previously, local governments will be assisted to continue to improve administrative efficiency and complete sports facility construction and renovation at an early date; and also guide private sports venue operators to build standardized, technology-based and smart friendly sports spaces to achieve the win-win objective of enhancing the basic fitness of the people and promoting the development of the sports industry.