SPORTS FACILITIES: THE TRANSITION FROM THE "COST SYSTEM" MODEL TO THE "REVENUE SYSTEM” MODEL

The sports facility represents the home of the fan, the symbolic place that connects citizenship to sport. The function of the stadiums is therefore of primary importance, representing the point of reference for millions of people who dedicate their time to their favourite team every week. It is essential to adapt these systems to the needs of the fan, focusing on the services dedicated to him. Every citizen should have, in fact, the right to watch sports performances in modern, usable, comfortable and above all safe environments. The ability to be able to guarantee such a scenario, especially in an extremely delicate economic moment, is closely connected to the creation of state-of-the-art sports facilities or the modernization of existing facilities, which often appear obsolete and crumbling in the Italian scenario. The planning, construction and management of a new generation of sports infrastructures for football can allow the growth of the business linked to the revenues from tenders, thus succeeding in diversifying the revenues of Italian clubs currently too tied to the revenues deriving from television rights. The transition from the "cost system" model to that of the "revenue system" is one of the main goals still to be achieved by the Italian sports system. In recent years, there have been many factors that have slowed down this transition phase, starting with the complexity and length of the bureaucratic procedures required for implementing the various projects, as well as the actual difficulty for private and public stakeholders to invest in sports facilities. This article is a summary of the most important experiences in Italy with regard to the development and construction of sports facilities resulting from the encounter between the world of Real Estate and sports clubs in the various disciplines. In particular, the article analyses the technical, economic and financial arrangements that have made it possible to implement the projects, and the main problems that have been encountered. The article focuses on the comparison of some of the most important initiatives carried out at the European level in the field of improving sports facilities, with particular regard to the revenues generated by the stadium (subscriptions, catering, etc.) and the regulatory aspects (Stability Law 2014).