The growing interest in fitness services is demanding optimal service management and operation. This research aims to identify the best practices in fitness center management for increasing customer engagement and for long-term stability and sustainability of the business. A qualitative approach through 23 semi-structured interviews to fitness center managers was performed in Spain, covering private centers with diverse business models (7 low-cost, 13 mid-market, and 3 premium). The managers were asked about their characteristics, the fitness center characteristics, and the managerial decisions and individual opinion. The results showed the best practices divided into five sections: customer service, offered service, marketing, facilities, and general terms and conditions. Kind customer service, the existence of loyalty programs, enough tangible quality, and online marketing strategies are essential for fitness centers’ success. Additionally, a fair fee and a maximum of a 15 min trip to the center should be guaranteed. This information has clear implications for promoting sporting habits and for engaging more people in physical activity, complementing the extensive quantitative data in the existing literature.

Background: The number of fitness practitioners has increased in the last decades. A deeper understanding of user perceptions is required for better service design. Methods: An importance-performance analysis (IPA) and correlational analysis were performed on a sample of 414 members (173 women and 241 men) with a mean age of 32.33 years (SD = 11.50) and recruited from 25 fitness centers of Community of Madrid, Spain. Results: The results show that women’s levels of importance and performance are higher than men in most of the service attributes. Women also correlate with a higher priority than men in core elements of the service, such as the variety and number of activities, personal training and fitness service quality. Female members feel more attracted by services like swimming pools and other peripheral services, like a welcome pack and medical or physiotherapist service. According to age, older members feel less satisfied than young users with the cleanliness of activity spaces and with the safety of lockers. Conclusions: Differences in perceptions by age and gender were identified among members of fitness centers. These results should be considered by private and public organizations to provide the best practices and tailored services for engaging more people in physical activity.

In 2019, numerous championships of youth categories soccer national teams were held. In the present study, we analyzed the existence of the Relative Age Effect (RAE) in four major male championships that, due to their importance and participating teams, most likely brought together the great bulk of the players who will dominate professional soccer in the next decade. Participants were professional and amateur youth male soccer players who participated in the last international championships: UEFA European Under-21 Championship (2017–2019); UEFA European Under-19 Championship (2019); South American Youth Football Championship (also known as Conmebol U-20) (2019); and FIFA U-20 World Cup (2019), with 823 players (20.25 ± 0.84 years). In the four championships analyzed, the existence of RAE was found for all players (p < 0.001). Analyzing the players when considering their position on the pitch and their championship, RAE was found, statistically significant, in 10 of the 16 classifications. New generations of elite soccer players arrive with a clear bias in the selection of talent; an unfair bias, based on unequal opportunities in early categories, which should be reviewed by sports authorities.

Spanish soccer coaching is almost exclusively male-dominated. Even in women’s soccer, women rarely have the opportunity to develop as coaches. Although some female ex-players have coached youth teams, very few have made it to directing elite female teams. The objective of this research was to examine the opinions of women coaches who have reached an elite level to understand the shortage of female coaches in Spanish women’s soccer. Fifteen female coaches with a mean coaching experience of 14 years underwent semi-structured interviews. The main factors identified as barriers were work conditions, low pay, gender stereotypes, lack of female role models, and a lack of effective hiring strategies. Despite this, it seems that, besides external discrimination, decisions made by women themselves have contributed to the lack of female coaches in Spanish elite women’s soccer.

The benefits that a positive running experience provides to individuals have been broadly studied by the scientific community, with the finding that running sport events are a facilitating tool to attract more individuals into physical activity. This study focuses on a sport management approach to improve the quality and organizational efficiency of running sports events so that a better experience for runners can be provided. The methods of this research consist of the validation of a new questionnaire called ‘The IPA4RE questionnaire’. Furthermore, an IPA analysis for a specific event was carried out. As our main findings, the most valued aspects perceived by consumers are the event atmosphere, security, event route, and convenience of bib collection and event day information. In conclusion, the IPA4RE can be used as a management tool by running event organizers to make more efficient use of their resources and provide a better experience to participants.

The pace of women’s access to leadership positions is very different from country to country. With 69.4 out of 100 points, Spain ranks fourth in the European Union (EU) on social power, first measured in the 2020 edition of the Gender Equality Index. However, a need of deepening the reasons for gender inequalities remains. The Women As Managers Scale (WAMS) is a useful tool that allows for the measurement of the attitudinal factors that hinder access to managerial positions. The aim of this study was to validate the Spanish version of the WAMS among sport managers through three factors: acceptance of women in key positions, features for business success, and barriers to access to managerial positions. For that purpose, a questionnaire—as is the original WAMS—was distributed to 401 managers working within sports organizations in the community of Madrid, Spain. Interclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and Student’s test were performed to analyze the stability of the scores. The internal consistency of the scales was assessed through Cronbach’s alpha, the Homogeneity Index, and Discriminability Index. The construct validity was completed through exploratory factor analysis using principal components. The results show that the WAMS serves as a reference for use as a measure of attitudinal factors that hinder access to an executive position. Therefore, this work generates an instrument with adequate properties in the Spanish context.