22. Sport Clubs in Switzerland

Currently, Switzerland has about 20,000 million sport clubs offering about 150 different sports for its roughly 1.6 million active members. This translates into 2.5 clubs per 1000 inhabitants and about a fifth of the population being a sport club member. The average Swiss sports club has somewhat over 100 active members, is almost exclusively based on voluntary work and generates earnings and expenses of roughly 10,000 Euros per year. Even tough other settings for practising sport ("free" sport, privately owned fitness centres) have gained in importance over the past few decades, sport clubs remain the dominant framework for doing regular and competitive sports. The article shows that the sustained "success story" of sport clubs in Switzerland is closely linked to a long tradition – the first clubs date back to the late medieval times and the early 19th century –, favourable legal conditions, the cooperative nature of relationships between clubs and government and a generally favourable societal climate for sport in Switzerland.