PORTUGAL: A Growing Sport Market in a Dominant State Model

The central aims of this chapter are threefold. The first objective is to give a brief outlook of how sport is organized in the public, private and voluntary sectors in Portugal. In general terms we will present the bureaucratic configuration of the sport system characterised by the rules and legislative framework dominated by the public agencies. The second objective is to examine the structure and characteristics of the private sport sector in Portugal and to present the way it has changed during the 2000’s. Following an outline of the changes in lifestyles during the last two decades we focus on the growth of the private sector and the consolidation of the idea that it is the responsibility of the individuals, rather than the state, to provide sport activities and health care to the society. Finally, to illustrate the general developments of the private sector we present and analyse three of the most important cases of sport business fields in Portugal – the fitness services, the golf and the nature sports. We conclude that sport participation levels in Portugal are lower than in most other European countries in which public sector is more widespread and not oriented only to club sport. The growing acceptance of the commercial sector as a provider of the solutions to physical activities, especially in promoting public health, reveals a scenario of the commodification of services, individualization of demand and irregularity of the practices. One of the challenges in the future in Portugal will be the way how public authorities are able to regulate the commodification of sport services and the equality of access to the facilities and other sport practices.