Cross-sectional survey observes no link between formal sports strategies and budget allocations in large municipalities, indicating a substantial policy implementation gap.
Key Points
To examine how formal municipal sport strategies connect to financing mechanisms, budget allocation, and policy implementation tools in post-socialist urban governments.
Administered a complete-population institutional survey in 2025 across all Slovak municipalities with populations exceeding 20,000 (N = 37).
Analyzed strategic planning, funding models, budget shares, infrastructure, and IT systems using descriptive statistics, cross-tabulations, chi-square tests, Fisher's exact test, and Cramér's V.
Direct municipal financing is favored over mixed funding models, with expenditures concentrated on sports clubs, youth, local events, and infrastructure.
Over half of surveyed municipalities do not use a dedicated information management system to monitor sport funding.
No statistically detectable associations were identified between the adoption of a formal sports strategy and municipal financing methods, IT utilization, or budget-share tiers.