Like I say above, sport is being mixed with leisure.

Football is about going to Wembley, cricket playing at Lords, swimming is the Olympics, cycling the Tour de France. The people that get there are produced almost exclusively by a club structure. They have to be - it requires a talented and driven individual to achieve and they need an extensive support network around them.
At our level,even a BG attempt needs support.

Our elite athletes past and present are part of a club system and this system has (in my opinion) been undermined in the last 20 years by Govt led, top down policies handed down through the Sports Quangos to UKA and it's predessesors.

Athletics is in the main a cheap sport - you only need to follow some of the threads on here complaining about the odd higher than normal race entry fee. One reason it is cheap is that club members come together and put on road races, fell races, relays events and track meetings to race a little money to put back in to the club.

The ability to put on such events has been chipped away at over the years. Track costs have risen, road access is far more difficult and incurs more expense. So it is already more difficult for clubs to survive.

Park Run is another, perhaps small initiative chipping away at that.

It is inevitable that in the Manchester area, with 3 Park Runs on every Saturday morning, that attendance at road races and cross country races will be affected. Some road races will go from the calendar, some XC leagues may fold.
Without the race to race funds, clubs may go.

It does not affect me at BBH at the moment and perhaps won't. Bur earlier this year a gentleman from Low Fell Running Club called Alan Elders created a stir when he asked for Parkruns to be boycotted.
"What is the point in clubs organising events and paying levies and fee for their members?...There seems to be one rule for clubs and another for others...Can I suggest your club does not support them or add links to their web pages"

Parkrun get around some of the costs and restrictions by saying they are not races, but timetrials. You can run around whatever time you like. However, they now have official start times, advise that all times given are based on this, so they are a race by all but name.
They appear in the Power of 10 rankings.