Evaluation of Public Sports Facilities with a Residents' Consciousness Survey: Case Study of Gifu Memorial Center

Abstract

Sports facilities are defined as quasi-public goods and most are supported by public administration, because sports affect education, improve health, develop the sports industry, and reinvigorate local economies. However, public facilities need to be evaluated from the viewpoint of social benefits and management expenses.The purpose of this paper is to clarify the evaluation of public sports facilities by residents. We carried out a residents' consciousness survey of Gifu Memorial Center where many large scale sports events are managed. We analyzed the survey results using factor analysis and covariance structural analysis The results of our analyses are summarized as follows. First, the factor analysis identified three effects; direct effects, indirect effects and existence effects. The direct effects are evaluated by the sports events, facilities and management. The indirect effects are evaluated by sports promotion and local revitalization. The existence effects are evaluated by park features and emergency gathering area.Second, the values of the latent variables that can be inferred from measurements of the observable variables provide corroborative evidence of the relationship between the evaluation of the facilities and expectations through the covariance structural analysis of residents' consciousness. In particular the residents feel satisfaction for the facilities and expect sports and education in community service promotional events.Third, the evaluation of the Gifu Memorial Center by residents fluctuated according to a difference in the residents' preference for sports and their health consciousness. Residents that have a preference for and actually participate in sports set a high valuation on sports facilities, but residents that have no interest in sports are indifferent about the facilities. Furthermore, the neighborhood residents highly evaluate existence effects and local revitalization.JEL Classification: R11, H75, I18