Sport, health and fitness in the 21st century city

3^rd International Conference on Sports Medicine and Fitness

October 05-06, 2017 Barcelona, Spain

John Nauright

University of North Texas, USA

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Sports Med Doping Stud

Abstract :

Around the world cities are using sport and fitness in urban design, economic development strategies and as focal points for smart city initiatives. Examples include Sports City, Dubai; Aspire Zone; and the Frisco IS Sports initiatives in Frisco, Texas, part of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex (DFW). We conducted an analysis of the ways in which sport, fitness and healthy lifestyles have become focal points of urban design and development examining how widespread such designs are in broad social impact using social return on investment analyses (SROI). Our findings are illuminated by case studies from four different cities of the DFW region, Frisco, McKinney, Allen and Grand Prairie each of which has a distinctive approach to how urban design, economic development and the promotion of health, fitness and sports contributes to local development and attraction of residents and business enterprises to their cities. I finish my discussion with a template for cities to promote health, fitness and sport into the 22nd Century.