Direct Economic Impacts of a Professional Sport Team on the Host City: The Case of JYP and Jyväskylä, Finland

Abstract

In Finland, sports clubs are typically non-profit-associations. Only recently, the highest-level sports clubs’ have turned into businesses, starting late 1990’s. Public discussion in Finland has questioned whether using public funds on professional sports clubs is justified or not. The argument suggests that this money is either an investment by the public in the local economy, or rather a public expense that benefits no one except the club, its fans and partners. This research aims to dig further into the discussion by studying the direct economic impacts of a professional Finnish Ice-Hockey team: JYP Jyväskylä Ltd, on its home city of Jyväskylä and the surrounding region during the 2014-2015 season. These direct economic impacts are calculated according to the model based on a Keynesian-theory introduced by Könecke et al. in 2015. The results of the study went in favour of the suggestion that using public funds for professional sport clubs is a public investment in the local economy. © 2020 Pamukkale University. All Rights Reserved.