KfW Research: Municipalities remain heavily committed to popular sports

• Despite financial hardship, municipalities in Germany operate a broad range of sporting facilities
• However, one third of them have warned that they may be forced to scale back offerings in the coming years
• Backlog of investment is highest for indoor sports

Despite growing financial constraints, German municipalities are still committed to keeping their sporting facilities open. In 2024, 94% of municipalities had indoor sports arenas and 92% had sports grounds. Just over half of municipalities had outdoor pools and 46% had indoor pools. In two thirds of municipalities that had indoor sports arenas or sports grounds in 2024, the number of facilities has remained steady in the past ten years. Around one fourth of municipalities even built new indoor sports arenas or sports grounds in recent years. Sixty per cent of municipalities have reported that the number of their indoor pools has grown since 2014, while that figure is 54% for outdoor pools.

These are the findings of a special survey of municipal treasuries which the German Institute for Urban Affairs (Difu) carried out on behalf of KfW in October 2024. Although the results are not representative, they do provide a robust impression of the situation in municipalities.

“It is encouraging that so many municipalities remain committed to popular sports. After all, promoting popular sports is important not just for keeping people physically active and healthy but also for social cohesion”,

said Dr Stefanie Brilon, municipal expert at KfW Research.

“But the figures cannot obscure the fact that parts of the municipal sports services are under threat. There is a major backlog of investment.”

In the survey, 59% of municipalities responded that the backlog of investment in indoor sports arenas was severe or considerable, while 62% said the same about indoor pools and 53% about ice rinks. The findings indicate that underinvestment is particularly serious in indoor sports arenas and involves the building fabric. It mostly affects the energy characteristics of the buildings as well as the condition of the building envelopes and that of the sanitary and technical equipment.

In more than 40% of municipalities, individual sports activities sometimes cannot be carried out because of the structural condition of the facilities. Thirty-six per cent of municipalities fear that they must reduce their sports services in the coming years. But this decline is more moderate than in other discretionary areas of public service provision. For example, 41% of municipalities reported having to scale back cultural offerings in coming years because of their financial situation.

The poor condition of some sports facilities becomes particularly clear when municipalities are asked what share of facilities need to be closed in the next three years if they are not extensively redeveloped. The responding municipalities stated that, on average, they would have to close 16% of their outdoor pools, 15% of their ice rinks and 14% of their indoor pools.

“The prospect of losing almost one sixth of swimming pools appears to be particularly serious because they are key to learning how to swim, and according to the German Life Saving Association, the number of non-swimmers has been growing for years already”,

said Dr Stefanie Brilon.

You can find the study at www.kfw.de/fokus (in German).