Spreadsheets are everywhere in community sport.
Team lists.
Player availability.
Contact details.
Season plans.
They start as a quick solution, and quietly become the backbone of how clubs operate.
Until one day, they don’t.
Spreadsheets don’t look like a problem
On the surface, spreadsheets feel harmless:
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Everyone has access
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They’re flexible
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They’re familiar
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They don’t cost anything
So clubs build more and more around them.
What gets missed is the hidden cost, the work required to keep them functioning.
When flexibility becomes fragility
Every spreadsheet-based system eventually relies on:
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One person who “knows how it works”
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Manual updates after every change
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Copying data between files
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Version control guesswork
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Trust that everyone is looking at the right information
At first, this feels manageable.
Over time, it becomes fragile.
“Just check the latest version”
Few phrases cause more confusion in a club than this one.
Which version is latest?
Who updated it last?
Did everyone see the change?
Suddenly, simple questions turn into long message threads, and someone ends up double-checking everything just in case.
That “just in case” work is where the real cost lives.
When one spreadsheet becomes many
Most clubs don’t have a spreadsheet.
They have:
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One for teams
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One for availability
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One for volunteers
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One for contacts
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One for backups
Each solves a small part of the problem.
Together, they create:
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Duplicate data
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Conflicting information
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Extra work to keep things aligned
The spreadsheet didn’t fail.
The system around it did.
What happens when the spreadsheet owner steps away
This is the moment clubs rarely plan for.
When the person who maintains the spreadsheet:
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Goes on holiday
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Misses a week
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Steps down
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Leaves the club
Everything slows down.
Not because others aren’t capable, but because the system was never shared, documented, or designed to be handed over.
Spreadsheets don’t scale with people
Community sport changes constantly:
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Players join and leave
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Volunteers rotate
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Roles shift each season
Spreadsheets don’t adapt well to this reality.
They assume:
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Static ownership
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Manual upkeep
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Ongoing attention from the same people
That assumption is what breaks clubs over time.
The real issue isn’t the tool, it’s the dependency
Spreadsheets aren’t bad.
They’re just being asked to do jobs they were never designed for.
The moment a spreadsheet becomes:
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A source of truth
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A workflow manager
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A communication layer
…it becomes a liability.
What sustainable clubs do differently
Clubs that reduce admin pressure don’t eliminate spreadsheets overnight.
They:
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Move critical workflows into shared systems
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Create visibility for everyone
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Reduce reliance on individuals
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Let spreadsheets support, not run, the club
That shift alone removes hours of invisible work each week.
Clubs don’t need perfect systems, they need resilient ones
The goal isn’t to eliminate spreadsheets.
It’s to stop relying on them for everything.
When systems are built to survive handovers, absences, and change, clubs become easier to run, and volunteers stick around longer.
That’s the difference between coping and sustainability.