Sports and recreation facilities that are poorly planned, designed, or constructed often increase participants’ exposure to hazardous conditions and not only render the facility harder to maintain, operate, and staff, but can also significantly increase the organization’s exposure to liability. A poorly designed facility can usually be traced to a lack of effort or expertise of the planning and design team. It is not uncommon for a recreation or sport facility to be designed by an architect who has little or no experience in that type of building. For those without the proper background and understanding of the unique properties of sport and recreation facilities, many opportunities for mistakes exist that may lead to increased problems related to safety, operations, and staffing. This session will look at common design problems and ways to avoid them and ways to correctly maintain the facilities.