Citizen Sports Centers Subsidized by Sports Administration Will Operate in 2014
The Sports Administration indicated the Improving Environment for Public Sports Events and Creating a Sports-Minded Island Program, approved by the Executive Yuan, includes two sub-plans: Building Citizen Sports Centers and Improving the Quality of Sports Facility. Indoor Sports Center are targeted at metropolitan areas with concentrated populations and convenient transportation. Each sports center will contain an indoor heated swimming pool, physical fitness center, aerobics room, badminton court, table tennis court, and stadium. In addition to enhance the quality of public service and the effectiveness of people’s exercise, each citizen sports center will be provided with qualified sports injury prevention staff, physical fitness instructors, and professional sports facilities managers. To further meet the people’s exercise needs, there will be a special period when senior citizens and disadvantaged groups can enter without admission fee.
The Sports Administration has made a two-phase subsidy to make sure the citizen sports centers can run successfully after completion, and protect people’s benefits and the quality of public service. First, the local governments should assign professionals to do complete demand evaluations, market surveys about people’s willingness and financial conditions for paying to exercise, sports centers’ operational and financial affairs. After outsourcing operations, the Sports Ministration will approve the subsidy to make sure the construction can transit seamlessly into operation. In this way, the Sports Ministration hopes to improve the quality of Taiwan’s sports facility, encourage Taiwanese people to do regular exercise, to be healthier, and set a new benchmark for Taiwan’s sports industry.