How do uni's decide which sports to invest in?

[weddenstay]

DD will be heading to uni in 2022. She is torn between one that does the academic course she wants to do and one that has training facilities for the sport she plays at national level. It's a relatively niche sport (hence not naming it), but growing in popularity. It is closely related to another sport that has much wider participation and which is already popular at this uni. If people are lucky enough to have access to facilities for both sports they do tend to do both, but facilities for the niche variety are few and far between in the UK. If she chose the academic uni she would have limited access to training facilities over an hour away by car. We've been musing about whether, if she chose that option, she could try to persuade the university to build a training facility for her sport on site - it would be possible for around £30k, and they do seem to have enough space. There are already some niche sports with fantastic facilities there. If universities have money to spend on sport facilities, how do they decide which sports to invest in? Do they consult students?

We realise money and time will be issues. However if she is there 4 years and manages to persuade the uni to build something by the time she leaves then she will at least have benefited those who come along afterwards. As i said, its a growing sport. It would almost certainly be used by a local club as well as the university club, and could be used by local children for holiday camps etc, as well as attracting more adults to the sport.

All this is absolutely right, OP, and shows a sensible approach to the issue imo, this is exactly how it tends to happen with multi-use or with a local club part-funding and part-using the facilities. But unfortunately as PP have said, it probably won't happen fast enough.

My DD benefited from new facilities in her main sport being built during her first year (during that they had to train a way away, at odd times early in the morning and late at night) and then enjoyed them in subsequent years, but the plans were already underway (and full funding put in place) some time before that.

Has she looked at US uni’s?

In dc’s sport in recent years they are all going over to the us. Niche sport again, but many uni’s have competitive teams and offer training and academics.

If they are national level a scholarship to a top uni is fairly accessible. Even jf they’re below that, many uni’s still offer scholarships, maybe just not the big names.