Public Vs. Private Spending for Sports Facilities – the Case of Germany 2006

Abstract

After a long period of stagnation, many sport stadiums have been built or renovated across Germany during the last years. This boom was induced by the successful application for the FIFA Soccer World Championship 2006 and was commonly regarded as necessary, given the obsolete facilities of German soccer clubs. While in the past stadiums in Germany were wholly financed by public subsidies, current financial difficulties of the German government and especially of the municipalities, joint with changes of the legal form of German soccer clubs, make it necessary and possible to search for alternative financing forms. This paper reviews private and public financing models for sports facilities and provides a detailed analysis of the effective financing of the venues for the FIFA World Championship 2006.