Willingness-to-Pay in Non-Profit Sports Clubs

In Germany, non-profit sports clubs play an important role for the sports supply of the population. All in all, there are more than 90,000 sports clubs with over 27 mil-lion memberships (German Olympic Sports Confederation, 2010). This implies that about one in three Germans is a member of a sports club—the actual number is most likely lower as some people are members of multiple sports clubs. Despite this popu-larity, sports clubs face many financial challenges in today’s economic environment. The results from a survey of sports clubs in Germany reveal the financial situation is problematic for many clubs, with 3.6 % of the clubs experiencing serious financial problems (Breuer & Wicker, 2009). There are several reasons why German sports clubs might have financial problems. One reason is a decrease in public subsidies. Non-profit sports clubs receive different types of public subsidies, for example, direct subsidies, tax allowances, or the use of public sports facilities for little or no fees (Horch, 1992). In Germany, the voluntary sports sector (e.g., sports confederations and non-profit sports clubs) receives severa