Aquatic facilities are more than pools. They are community infrastructure, water safety environments, health and wellbeing spaces, employment hubs, teaching venues and public assets.

In this episode of Aquatics Only, Luke Daly and David Stennett explore the pressure currently sitting around aquatic facilities, councils, operators and communities.

The conversation begins with an industry round-up, including changes at Australasian Leisure Management, the upcoming World’s Largest Swimming Lesson, and recent facility management movements involving Aligned Leisure, BlueFit and City Venue Management.

From there, Luke and David open up a broader discussion around tenders, local government decision-making, capital expenditure, operating costs and long-term viability. They ask whether tender processes are helping clarify value — or whether complexity is making it harder to focus on what communities actually need.

The episode also touches on ageing aquatic assets, cost-of-living pressure, regional impacts, swim school participation, and the role of industry events such as ASSA Swimposiums and upcoming conferences in keeping the sector connected.

As always, it is a serious industry conversation with the usual Aquatics Only side roads — including braces, learning German, broccoli economics, Aqualadies and just enough cheek to keep things moving.

In this episode:

• Recent aquatic facility management changes across Australia
• The growing complexity of tender processes
• Why capital cost is only part of the facility story
• The relationship between operating pressure and public value
• Cost-of-living impacts on swim schools, operators and families
• The challenge of ageing community aquatic infrastructure
• ASSA Swimposiums, conference season and industry connection
• Why aquatic facilities need to be viewed as essential community assets

Aquatics Only is for the people leading, managing and shaping the aquatics industry — practical, conversational and not afraid to ask what the sector needs to do better.

Thanks for listening to Aquatics Only. If you’re in swim schools, aquatic facilities, lifeguarding, learn-to-swim, programs, products, or anything water safety related, you’re in the right place.

Subscribe so you don’t miss an episode, and if this one was useful, share it with someone in the industry.

Want to get involved or have a guest/topic suggestion? Reach out: aquaticsonlypod@gmail.com