From 20 Hours to 2: How One Club Slashed Their Admin Time

When Sarah took over as facilities coordinator at her local soccer club, she inherited a system held together by spreadsheets, WhatsApp groups, and wishful thinking. Within three months, she'd cut her weekly admin time from 20 hours to under 2. Here's how.

The Starting Point

The club had eight pitches across two facilities, 45 teams from under-6s to seniors, and a scheduling nightmare. The previous coordinator had managed everything through a complex Excel workbook that only they understood.

Sarah's typical week involved updating the master spreadsheet whenever allocations changed (multiple times per day), manually checking for conflicts when coaches requested changes, sending weekly schedule updates to team managers via email, responding to "what time is training" messages on WhatsApp, coordinating with the neighbouring club who shared two pitches, and fielding complaints when things inevitably went wrong.

"I was spending every evening after work on club admin," Sarah recalls. "My family barely saw me during the season. I seriously considered quitting after the first month."

The Breaking Point

The crisis came when a scheduling error resulted in three teams showing up for the same pitch on a Saturday morning. Two coaches got into a heated argument. Parents took sides. It made the club's Facebook page for all the wrong reasons.

"That was my wake-up call," Sarah says. "I'd made the error because I was exhausted and rushing. But the system made errors inevitable. No one should need to manually cross-reference three spreadsheets to avoid a double-booking."

The Solution

Sarah convinced the committee to invest in proper facility management software. The transition took a weekend of initial setup — entering pitch configurations, team details, and existing allocations — but the payoff was immediate.

Conflict detection meant double-bookings became impossible. When Sarah tried to allocate a pitch that was already in use, the system stopped her. No more manual cross-referencing.

Self-service schedule access meant coaches and parents could check allocations themselves. A simple share link gave them real-time visibility. The "what time is training" messages stopped almost overnight.

The shared facility with the neighbouring club became easier too. Both clubs could see each other's allocations, preventing the constant back-and-forth that used to consume hours each week.

The Results

Within a month, Sarah's weekly admin time dropped from 20 hours to about 2. Most of that remaining time was spent on legitimate coordination work — helping coaches find alternative slots, planning for upcoming tournaments — rather than fighting with spreadsheets.

"I actually enjoy the role now," Sarah says. "I'm solving real problems instead of just maintaining a broken system. And I have my evenings back."

The club has seen benefits too. Scheduling errors have dropped to near zero. Coach satisfaction has improved. And when Sarah eventually moves on, the handover will be straightforward — no mysterious spreadsheets to decode.

The Lesson

Sarah's story isn't unique. Across the country, club volunteers are spending countless hours on administrative tasks that technology could handle in seconds. They're burning out not because they're incapable, but because they're fighting systems that were never designed for the complexity they're managing.

The tools exist to make their lives easier. The question is whether clubs will invest in them before their best volunteers reach breaking point — or after.