Leisure Facilities Data Providers: Site Inventories, Live Sessions and Demand Economics · Head-to-head
NYC Open Data — Recreation Catalog vs Sport England Research and Data Hub
Which leisure facilities data providers: site inventories, live sessions and demand economics data fits your job: NYC Open Data — Recreation Catalog, or Sport England Research and Data Hub. API, files, or your warehouse. Daily, weekly, or hourly.
NYC Open Data — Recreation Catalog
Sport England Research and Data Hub
What each contains
Pick by fit, not by loyalty.
| NYC Open Data — Recreation Catalog | Sport England Research and Data Hub | |
|---|---|---|
| Facility name | `signname` - the official sign name of a park property (Joseph C. Sauer Park) | Site `name` sitting inside Active Places' 200-plus site attributes |
| Type classification | `typecategory` (Neighborhood Park, Playground, Cemetery) plus `pooltype` (Wading, Intermediate, Mini) for pools | `facility_type` across 16 Active Places classes such as swimming pools, sports halls and grass pitches |
| Place coding | `borough` (M=Manhattan, X=Bronx, Q=Queens, B=Brooklyn, R=Staten Island) plus `zipcode` | Local authority, ward and region geography carried inside `site_attributes` |
| Geometry | `multipolygon` - full property boundary polygons on Parks Properties records | Site-level coordinates and grid references per facility point |
| Stable identifier | `omppropid` - unique number for a park property or portion of one | Site `id` keying each Active Places record and its child facility rows |
| Usage measurement | Attendance and operations series - outdoor pool and beach attendance, inspection results, Asset Management work orders | `leisure_centre_metrics` - visits, participation and social value per public leisure centre |
| Comparator frame | None in the dictionary | `benchmark_group` - national, operational or nearest-neighbour comparators |
| Period label | Implicit - current snapshots per constituent dataset | `survey_wave` naming each Active Lives reporting period (e.g. November 2024-25) |
What each does better
NYC Open Data — Recreation Catalog
Resolution on one city. Every park property arrives with polygon geometry, acreage, a one-letter borough code, a ZIP code and a waterfront flag; pool records classify themselves as Wading, Intermediate or Mini and indoor or outdoor. The verified sample rows read like the city itself: Joseph C. Sauer Park, Neighborhood Park, 0.403 acres, borough M, ZIP 10009.
Operations, not just inventory. Attendance counted at day and event level, Parks Inspection Program results and Asset Management work orders turn a static map into a running report of how the estate is used and maintained - the raw material for maintenance-demand models and service-level studies.
A clean jurisdiction. Everything sits inside five boroughs, so joins never cross administrative lines, and the Walk to a Park service areas quantify precisely which blocks fall outside a ten-minute walk of green space.
Sport England Research and Data Hub
Participation, measured directly. Active Lives classifies adults - and separately children and young people - as active, fairly active or inactive from moderate-intensity equivalent minutes per week, annually since 2015-16, with legacy series reaching back to October 2006. Nothing on the city side asks who actually exercises.
National provision and performance. Active Places audits sites across 16 facility types with over 200 attributes each, and Moving Communities benchmarks every public leisure centre against national, operational and nearest-neighbour comparator groups - the comparator frame shipped as a benchmark_group field rather than left to each analyst to rebuild.
The money trail. Grant records covering April 2009 to March 2022 connect investment decisions to places, which advocacy and funding cases on the city side would have to assemble from scratch.
The verdict
Verdict: sample both, pick by fit. Let the width of your question decide. If it lives inside New York City - greenspace-access modelling, site selection against parks and waterfront frontage, municipal parks operations reporting, cited journalism - NYC Open Data — Recreation Catalog gives you the estate at parcel resolution with a fully verified dictionary. If it spans England - participation trends, facility-provision planning, leisure-centre benchmarking, funding cases - Sport England Research and Data Hub carries the participation, provision and performance layers no city shelf can substitute for.
Neither wins on diligence: 8/10 against 8/10 is the rubric scoring them even. Cut each sample to the boroughs or regions you actually model, and the fit announces itself.
Sample both, pick by fit. See NYC Open Data — Recreation Catalog · See Sport England Research and Data Hub
Fair questions
Is NYC Open Data — Recreation Catalog better than Sport England Research and Data Hub?
Different tools for different questions, tied at 8/10 on the Datadory rubric. The city record wins when your question lives inside New York's five boroughs: polygon-mapped park properties, pools and beaches plus multi-year attendance, inspection and work-order series. The England record wins when the question is participation, provision or leisure-centre performance nationwide. Sample both, pick by fit.
Do the two datasets cover the same ground?
They share exactly one layer: facility inventories. Parks Properties and sibling city sets list parks, playgrounds, pools, beaches and athletic facilities; Active Places audits English sites across 16 facility types with 200-plus attributes per site. Outside that layer they diverge - operations series on the city side, participation surveys and performance benchmarks on the England side.
Which of the two reaches further back?
The England side states longer runs: Active Lives annually since 2015-16, legacy series back to October 2006, and grant records from April 2009 to March 2022. The city side publishes current snapshots of the estate, with attendance, inspection and work-order series extending across multiple years beneath them.
Which should a site-selection analyst sample first?
For a New York City footprint, [NYC Open Data — Recreation Catalog](/datasets/leisure-facilities/nyc-open-data-recreation-catalog) first - boundaries, acreage, borough and ZIP codes, waterfront flags and Walk to a Park service areas drop straight into proximity models. For catchment or provision work anywhere in England, start with [Sport England Research and Data Hub](/datasets/leisure-facilities/sport-england-research-and-data-hub), where facility types and site attributes come alongside participation and benchmark context.
Can Datadory deliver both datasets together?
Yes - either as parallel samples scoped to the boroughs and regions you nominate, or merged onto one calendar in a single recurring feed. The records resolve at different grains, so we normalise the geometry and period labels to the schema your model consumes. Samples prove fit before anything recurring switches on. Or take both in one feed.