Municipal Sport Management: Practical Application in the City of Valencia

The necessity and usefulness for citizens of the sport services offered by town/city councils to encourage practising sport is a basic pillar in today’s society, which is becoming increasingly sedentary and overfed, because healthy life habits help fight diseases caused by inactivity and being overweight. Nowadays not even half the Europe population practises sport on a regular basis, which is why public administrations must encourage this healthy habit. In parallel, town/city councils’ budgets have been cut due to the recent economic crisis, and they have had to revise and optimise their management models, which they had applied to all domains, especially in this one. This chapter analyses the various sport management types applied by town/city councils and presents the practical case of the city of Valencia.