chinahirata@gmail.com

felipe.canan@gmail.com

fernando.starepravo@hotmail.com

*Graduação em Educação Física pela Universidade Estadual de Londrina

Mestrado em Ciências Sociais Aplicadas pela Universidade Estadual de Ponta Grossa

Doutorado em Educação Física pela Universidade Estadual de Maringá

Professor da Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná- Campus Campo Mourão

Membro do Grupo de Estudos e Pesquisa em Políticas Públicas

do Esporte e Lazer (GEPPOL/UEM)

**Graduação em Licenciatura Plena em Educação Física

pela Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná (PUC-PR)

Graduação em Direito pela Universidade Paranaense (UNIPAR)

Doutorado em Educação Física pela Universidade Estadual de Maringá (UEM)

Professor Adjunto da Universidade do Estado do Amazonas (UEA)

Líder do Grupo de Pesquisa Práxis - Teoria e Prática da Educação Física (UEA/CNPq).

***Doutor em Educação Física pela Universidade Federal do Paraná (Brasil)

Pós-doutor pela Loughborough University (Reino Unido)

Professor do Departamento de Educação Física

da Universidade Estadual de Maringá (UEM)

e do Programa de Pós-graduação Associado em Educação Física UEM-UEL

Coordenador do Grupo de Estudos e Pesquisa em Políticas Públicas

de Esporte e Lazer (GEPPOL/CNPq)

(Brasil)

 Reception: 05/22/2020 - Acceptance: 12/29/2020

1st Review: 12/15/2020 - 2nd Review: 12/19/2020

Accessible document. Law N° 26.653. WCAG 2.0

Suggested reference: Hirata, E., Canan, F., & Starepravo, F.A. (2021). Municipal Public Policies and the Case of Male Basketball in Brazil. Lecturas: Educación Física y Deportes, 25(273), 2-15. https://doi.org/10.46642/efd.v25i273.2272

 

Abstract

    The aim of this study was identify whether the municipal administrations participated in the maintenance of teams participating in NBB and in affirmative cases, verify if such support can be understood as an incrementalist public policy. The methodology of case study was employed, having as object the Brazilian National Basketball Championship [NBB], from 2011 to 2017. A documentary analysis was carried out, using as source the Official NBB Media Guides of the seasons related to the selected time period, to verify the presence or absence of support/sponsorship of the municipal government to the teams. We found that between 40 and 60% of the teams that participated in NBB in the studied period received public funding. Based on political science literature, we developed the hypothesis that the recurrent use of this type of funding to support high performance teams come from sport-focused policies of incrementalist character. The data pointed to the use of public resources in Brazilian basketball teams in all seasons, mainly in teams located in the countryside Thus, the hypothesis could be confirmed. The findings may serve to mark out the action of political agents in decisions referring to the funding (or not) of high performance teams, and it can also indicate to managers of professional teams that there is a tendency of decrease of this type of financing and, consequently, a need to think of other alternatives for the maintenance of these teams.

    Keywords: Public policy. Sports. Basketball. Financing. Incrementalism.

 

Resumo

    O objetivo deste estudo foi identificar se as administrações municipais participam da manutenção das equipes participantes do Novo Basquete Brasil (NBB), competição equivalente ao campeonato nacional e, nos casos afirmativos, verificar se tal apoio pode ser entendido como uma política pública incrementalista. Foi empregada a metodologia de estudo de caso, tendo como objeto o NBB, de 2011 a 2017. Foi realizada uma análise documental, utilizando como fonte os Guias Oficiais de Mídia do NBB das temporadas relacionadas ao período selecionado, para verificar a presença ou ausência de apoio/patrocínio do governo municipal às equipes. Verificamos que entre 40 e 60% das equipes que participaram do NBB no período estudado receberam financiamento público. Com base na literatura de ciência política, desenvolvemos a hipótese de que o uso recorrente desse tipo de financiamento para apoiar equipes de alto rendimento advém de políticas voltadas ao esporte de caráter incrementalista. Os dados apontaram para a utilização de recursos públicos nas equipes participantes dos campeonatos nacionais de basquete em todas as temporadas, principalmente em equipes localizadas em cidades do interior. Assim, a hipótese pôde ser confirmada. Os achados podem servir para balizar a atuação dos agentes políticos nas decisões referentes ao financiamento (ou não) de equipes de alto desempenho, podendo também indicar aos gestores das equipes profissionais que há uma tendência de diminuição deste tipo de financiamento e consequentemente, é preciso pensar em outras alternativas para a manutenção dessas equipes.

    Unitermos: Políticas públicas. Esportes. Basquete. Financiamento. Incrementalismo.

 

Resumen

    El objetivo de este estudio fue identificar si las administraciones municipales participan en el sostenimiento de los equipos participantes en el Nuevo Baloncesto Brasil (NBB), competencia equivalente al campeonato nacional y, de ser así, verificar si dicho apoyo puede entenderse como una política pública incremental. Se utilizó la metodología de estudio de caso, teniendo como objeto el NBB, 2011-2017. Se realizó un análisis documental, utilizando como fuente las Guías Oficiales de Medios de NBB para las temporadas relacionadas con dicho período, para verificar la presencia o ausencia de sustento/patrocinio del gobierno municipal a equipos. Encontramos que entre el 40 y el 60% de los equipos que participaron en el NBB durante el período estudiado recibieron financiación pública. A partir de literatura de ciencia política, hemos desarrollado la hipótesis de que el uso recurrente de este tipo de financiación para apoyar a los equipos de alto rendimiento proviene de políticas incrementalistas orientadas al deporte. Los datos apuntaban al uso de recursos públicos en los equipos participantes en los campeonatos nacionales de baloncesto en todas las temporadas, principalmente en equipos ubicados en ciudades del interior. Por tanto, se pudo confirmar la hipótesis. Los hallazgos pueden servir para orientar el desempeño de los agentes políticos en las decisiones relativas al financiamiento (o no) de los equipos de alto rendimiento, y también pueden indicar a los gerentes de equipos profesionales que existe una tendencia a que este tipo de financiamiento disminuya y, en consecuencia, es necesario pensar en otras alternativas para mantener estos equipos.

    Palabras clave: Políticas públicas. Deportes. Baloncesto. Financiación. Incrementalismo.

 

Lecturas: Educación Física y Deportes, Vol. 25, Núm. 273, Feb. (2021)

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Introduction 

 

    The application of public resources in high sport in Brazil is a recurring practice and, to some extent, has to do with the kind of historically constituted relationship between the Brazilian Government and sports. Roughly, it is understood that the opening for this protective relationship has an interventionist nature, since the first sports law.

 

    Thus, the legal instruments that governed national sports until the Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil, in 1988, allowed the State to put emphasis on high performance sport, by which the Government sought to project the name of the country internationally and create an identification of the population with the sense of nation. In other words, sports were thus used by the State with a nationalistic intention and even after the promulgation of the new Constitution (Brazil, 1988), which provides for a more democratized State action regarding sport, this modus operandi did not change much. Therefore, public resources continued to be primarily applied to high performance sports (Bueno, 2008; Toledo, 2014).

 

    This protective dependency of the Brazilian high performance sport has been subject of numerous studies, most of them focusing primarily on the actions of the Federal Government (Teixeira, Matias, & Mascarenhas, 2015; Almeida, 2010; Bueno, 2008). While the academy has focused on the Federal level to investigate this issue, when we directed our attention to understand how the municipal administrations have been relating to high performance sport, we found that studies analyzing the sponsorship/support of municipal administrations to professional sports teams in Brazil to be scarce (Hirata, 2020; Borges, & Tonini, 2012). The elements that may have been prevalent for municipal sports leaders to choose to support high performance sport have also not been analyzed yet.

 

    Brazilian men’s basketball is included in this gap and is regarded as even more relevant because of the increasing professionalization of the structures surrounding the Liga Nacional de Basquete [National Basketball League] (LNB), entity currently responsible for organizing the Novo Basquete Brasil [New Basketball Brazil] (NBB), the main national competition. Therefore, the research question that guides this study is: Does public funding for high performance Brazilian sport also prevail in the municipal context, more specifically concerning basketball?

 

    From this perspective, the aim of this study was to:

1. Identify whether the municipal administrations participated in the maintenance of teams participating in NBB and the extent to which that happened;

2. In affirmative cases, verify if such support can be understood as an incrementalist public policy.

The case of Brazilian men’s basketball 

 

    The study of the participation of municipal public entities in the financing of high performance sports teams is already justified by the shortage of authors who investigated this theme. However, when linking this participation to the Brazilian men’s basketball, the importance is increased, since the LNB was one of the first entities to use the new legislation, Law no. 9,615/1998, known as the Pelé Law, to organize the national championships. Until then, the function of organizing national competitions was restricted to the national confederations of each modality.

 

    In this increasingly professionalized environment, during the studied period (2011-2017), the NBB had 26 participating teams, which we characterized as follows: Eight are traditional multi-sport large capital clubs: Pinheiros, Paulistano, Minas Tênis Clube (MTC), Tijuca Tênis Clube, Vasco, Flamengo, Vitória, and Palmeiras – the last four are recognized for their strong connection to football. One of the characteristics that distinguishes these multi-sports clubs from the others is their active assets, generally contemplating social headquarters, gyms/stadiums, swimming pools, party halls, training center, etc.

 

    Among the 18 remaining teams, the predominance of clubs specialized in basketball and based in the countryside should be highlighted. It is the case of Bauru, Franca, Limeira, Rio Claro, Araraquara, São José dos Campos, Sorocaba, Suzano, and Mogi das Cruzes, in the state of São Paulo; and Caxias do Sul, Campo Mourão, Joinville, Macaé, Vila Velha, and Uberlândia in other Brazilian states. Distinctly from the multi-sports clubs of the first category, these clubs, in their vast majority, were founded with the exclusive purpose of developing basketball, although sometimes they borrow the name or space of social clubs with the more traditional format. In this category we can historically perceive the greater influence of municipal public power. (Melini, 2016)

 

Methods 

 

    This research is characterized as descriptive and employs the technique of document analysis. According to Gil (2019, p. 44), descriptive studies “[...] have as primary objective to describe the characteristics of a particular population or phenomenon or the establishment of relationships between variables”. In our case, we sought specifically to relate the participation of municipal administrations regarding the variables “sponsorship” and “disposal of public space”. Concerning the first, it was possible to observe that NBB’s teams had sponsorship or support of the municipal administrations of the cities where they were based. On the issue of disposal of public space, we investigated whether the teams participating in NBB used municipal sports gymnasiums or not.

 

    The main documentary sources of this research were NBB Media Guides, publications produced by the National Basketball League to supply the press with information about the competition. These publications show general data on NBB and its teams. About the competition, the data that prevail are related to the schedule of matches, ranking and records of technical principles statistics, and relation of judges, while regarding the teams, the guides feature personal data of players, technical committee and management, site of the games, sponsors, show their uniforms and indicate ways to contact the team.

 

    However, regarding sponsorship, the guides usually presented up to three sponsors, which sometimes may have unintentionally omitted financial supports of minor figures. Although NBB began to be played in 2008/2009, the Official Guides only began to be published by the National Basketball League from 2010. However, for the season of 2010, the Guide did not present any information on sponsors and supporters. This type of data only began to be disclosed in the following season. Thus, the time period for this research was restricted to the years of 2011 to 2017 (2011-2012 to 2016-2017), when it was possible to identify the data required for our purposes.

 

    In addition to the Official Guide, we conducted a search to try to fill the gap mentioned above. We searched for evidence of the relationship between municipal administrations and the clubs participating of NBB on their websites, since, being official channels of communication of these institutions, their information could show the existence of any sponsorship, support, or partnership that were not disclosed in the official guides. Finally, considering the lack of updating or lack of older information archive on the websites of clubs and municipal administrations, we decided to investigate national and local newspapers, blogs, and websites for information.

 

    In a second moment, we confronted the data collected with the theory of political science to verify the possibility to understand the use of municipal public resources in high performance sport as an incrementalist public policy. We understand incrementalism as an approach that discusses public policy based on what exists in the present, gradually and slowly introducing changes that involve adjustments and negotiations and that are not considered as a final solution, but a step that must be followed by other steps. This theory was initially proposed by Charles Edward Lindblom therefore the importance of reference him and his studies during the discussions. (Lindblom, 1979; 1959)

 

Results and discussion 

 

    In this regard, the 26 teams that participated on NBB between its fourth and ninth editions were studied. Of the 26 teams that played NBB between seasons 2011-2012 (NBB4) and 2016-2017 (NBB9), only 10 (38.46%) did not benefit from partnerships with municipal governments. Most of these teams (8) are based in cities with population of over 2 million inhabitants, such as: São Paulo (Paulistano, Pinheiros, and Palmeiras), Rio de Janeiro (Flamengo and Vasco), Belo Horizonte (MTC), Salvador (Vitória), and Brasília (Brasília). Another characteristic of teams that do not have a relationship with municipal administrations is that they are traditional multi-sport clubs: Paulistano, Pinheiros, Palmeiras, Flamengo, Vasco, MTC and Vitória are in this category. Bauru and Brasília are exceptions (Table 1).

 

	2016-17 NBB9	2015-16 NBB8	2014-15 NBB7	2013-14 NBB6	2012-13 NBB5	2011-12 NBB4
1.            Basquete Cearense	Y	Y	Y	N	N	-
2.            Bauru	N	N	N	N	N	N
3.            Brasília	N	N	N	N	N	N
4.            Campo Mourão	Y	-	-	-	-	-
5.            Caxias do Sul	N	Y	-	-	-	-
6.            Flamengo	N	N	N	N	N	N
7.            Franca	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
8.            Liga Sorocabana	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
9.            Macaé	Y	Y	Y	Y	-	-
10.          Minas Tênis Clube	N	N	N	N	N	N
11.          Mogi das Cruzes	Y	N	N	Y	Y	-
12.          Paulistano	N	N	N	N	N	N
13.          Pinheiros	N	N	N	N	N	N
14.          Vasco da Gama	N	-	-	-	-	-
15.          Vitória	N	N	-	-	-	-
16.          Rio Claro	-	Y	Y	-	-	-
17.          São Jose	-	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
18.          Palmeiras	-	-	N	N	N	-
19.          Araraquara	-	-	-	-	-	Y
20.          Tijuca	-	-	-	-	Y	Y
21.          Vila Velha	-	-	-	Y	Y	Y
22.          Uberlândia	-	-	N	N	N	Y
23.          Limeira	-	-	Y	Y	Y	Y
24.          Joinville	-	-	-	-	N	Y
25.          Suzano	-	-	-	-	Y	-
26.          Goiânia	-	-	-	-	Y	-

Source: Research data

 

    Though far from having the same tradition as the centenarian or almost centenarian clubs mentioned above, they can be considered traditional teams when considering basketball specifically, as they played all 9 NBB editions and are among the only three teams that managed to win the competition. The other team is Universo/Goiânia, which although it did not receive resources from the municipal government, was sponsored by the State Government of Goiás.

 

    One of the explanations for this prevalence is given by Coakley (2016) when indicating that high performance sports have better condition to flourish in big cities than in smaller ones. Such an argument is based on the broader market that a larger population offers.

 

    In addition, it is possible to conjecture, based on Hirata (2020), that, generally, the main source of income of the sports clubs of basketball in Brazil is sponsoring, with values far above transmission rights and sales of licensed products and tickets. In this segment, it is known that larger companies, with greater potential to offer sponsorship to sports teams, are also based in larger cities, and this approach tends to make negotiations less difficult when compared with teams from smaller cities.

 

    The 16 remaining teams (61.54%), supported/sponsored by municipal administrations, and which are the focus of our analysis, a reverse panorama was observed. Only two clubs are not located in the countryside: Basquete Cearense and Tijuca Tênis Clube. If we focus only in the participation of teams from the countryside in NBB, we shall see there were 53 participations, with 40 of them (75%) counting with sponsorship/support from municipal administrations, i.e., although it was not possible to identify the magnitude of this support, it is at least possible to understand that this type of relationship between state and professional basketball teams is common.

 

    We also noticed that, among the clubs that ceased to participate in NBB in the studied period (11 teams), only two of them, Palmeiras and Universo Goiânia², did not count with the participation of resources from local governments, which allow us to say that the clubs that count with this type of relationship are more likely to paralyze their activities when compared to those that did not have public sponsorship. Hirata (2020) and Melini (2016) suggest that the clubs should depend less on public sponsorship, especially not to put their continuity at the hand of political decisions.

 

    It seems important to understand the reasons that lead municipal public administrators to put high performance sport on the agenda of their public policies for sport and leisure, specifically through the sponsorship of sports teams that participate in national competitions. According to Gaudin (2007, p. 55), “the city’s basketball team symbolizes the prosperity of the company, as much as its local roots. Local pride was developed in these medium-sized cities, for example, Catanduva, Campinas, Franca, Presidente Prudente, and Jundiaí”. Although the author refer to private sponsorship, it seems feasible to understand it in the same way for public sponsorship, i.e., the sport is used as a sort of political propaganda, especially for the space it has in the media.

 

    Hirata, Pépece, & Starepravo (2017) verified that sports provide the feeling of pride and belonging when investigating the reasons for consumption of organized basketball fans. Borges, & Tonini (2012) also cite the issue of belonging when they investigated the perception of citizens regarding state support of the municipality of Vitória to high performance sport. In addition to this approach, the authors justify the use of public resources in high performance sports teams with three other arguments:

    The first is that this type of investment is necessary, since it generates a feeling of belonging in the people, who start to cheer for teams from the municipality; secondly, the existence of top athletes in the municipality represents idol references for boys, who become more interested in those practices and seek basketball schools; finally, the existence of high performance sport, with reference athletes, attracts public to the games, and these become leisure alternatives (Borges & Tonini, 2012, p. 289).

 

    The second argument finds an ally in the study by Muttera, & Pawlowski (2014), which found evidence that professional sports cause increased practice time and participation and, consequently, also increases spending with this practice, in the midst of other studies that question it, as this effect has not yet been properly measured. Mezzadri et al. (2006), studying public policies for sport and leisure in municipalities of the state of Paraná, Brazil, identified that the main action was the preparation of teams to participate in the official State Games³. It is not really about the maintenance of high performance teams, but demonstrates a design and tendency of sports policy aimed at sports with institutionalized competitions. That is, although in a reduced dimension, municipal public administrators see sponsorship/support to high performance teams as one of the main options for their administration.

    In the context of political science, this municipal public resource investment in high performance teams can be explained by the incrementalist policy, which is characterized by gradual and slow changes, which involve adjustments and negotiations between interested parties and that is not considered a final solution, but a step, being considered successful can be followed by other complementary steps. (Araújo, & Rodrigues, 2017; Lindblom, 1959)

 

    This approach emerged to oppose the rational approach, which “presupposes intellectual capacities and information sources that people simply do not have and proves to be an even more absurd approach to political decisions when it is verified that the time and money allocable to a problem under consideration are limited, as it usually happens” (Lindblom, 1959, p. 80), i.e., its use is not feasible in problems considered complex, for which, incrementalism is defended by the author as the best solution.

 

    Lessmann (1989), supported by Dror (1968), identifies three conditions that can contribute to the understanding that the incrementalist method may be appropriate in policy making: if the results of the current policy are satisfactory; and if there is a high level of continuity in the nature of the problems and in the means to address them.

 

    In addition, considering that policy makers have a limited room for maneuver regarding their actions and, due to that, their decisions often have to be made taking into account the existing policies, we can understand that the previous and traditional public support/sponsorship to high performance sports is reused under the reasoning exposed above, because, as well as keep a recurring and apparently validated by the community practice, the political cost of not providing support can be negatively greater. To corroborate this perspective Galily, Yuval, & Bar-Eli (2012) suggest that a current situation can be continued by the lack of interest in other demands, or to put it another way, as the community does not complain, does not question, and does not claim for a change in political decisions, public managers continue their actions.

 

    Lessman (1989) point out that the incrementalist decisions have as effect the satisfaction of interests of dominant groups, so in this case, as already pointed out in other studies already mentioned, continuity is given to satisfy the interests of high performance sports at the expense of other expressions of the sport. This, to a certain extent, was pointed out by Bueno (2008), in a study on the Brazilian national sports policy, which showed the dominance of the supporter coalition of high performance sports. That is, in the federal sphere, such groups, formed mostly by private sport entities, occupy the dominant space of the national sports policy, which can possibly be transferred and reproduced on smaller spheres, such as states and municipalities. Galily et al. (2012) believe that this type of situation occurs due to lack of interest and attention of the community, allowing a continuous and disproportionate strengthening of a select group through the definition of equally disproportionate budgets.

 

	2016-17 NBB9	2015-16 NBB8	2014-15 NBB7	2013-14 NBB6	2012-13 NBB5	2011-12 NBB4
Total teams	15	15	16	17	18	15
Teams with sponsorship/support from municipal administrations	6	7	7	7	8	9
Percentage	40.0	46.7	43.8	41.2	44.4	60.0

Source: Research data

 

    An important point revealed by this study is the decrease of the relationship between municipal administration/Basketball Club, since thinking in absolute figures, the number of teams that had sponsorship or support from municipalities was always less than or equal to the precious year. In other words, in NBB4 nine teams counted with municipal support, in NBB5 this value decreased to eight teams, in NBB6, NBB7, and NBB8 the number of teams stabilized at seven, declining again in NBB9, with six teams. However, when thinking about percentages, only in NBB7 and NBB8 there was a small addition in this regard between season one and the other.

 

    This lower dependence on the public power is in accordance with the suggestions of Hirata (2020) and Melini (2016), so that clubs can thrive. A possible explanation for this dependence decrease on the support of the municipal public power may be the increasing professionalization, commodification, and spectacularization of the competition. That is, the social structures associated with the organization of NBB, becoming increasingly professionalized, enabled teams and LNB to negotiate better conditions with their private sponsors, thus resorting to a lesser extent to municipal public administrators.

 

    Another possibility is the monitoring of municipal controllership organs over the public money that circulates in municipal administrations. If on the one hand there is the speech that says that supporting professional sports is a way to stimulate the spirit of belonging and of merchandising the city, to create idols that encourage the practice of sports, to offer a leisure alternative, and to stimulate the economic development surrounding the team (Barlow, & Forrest, 2015; Borges, & Tonini, 2012; Galily et al., 2012); on the other, there is a tendency to criticize public financing of high performance sport with the argument that it should privilege other manifestations of the sport that reach a greater number of practitioners. (Starepravo, Canan, & Santos, 2018)

 

    This phenomenon of gradual decrease of the municipal public investment in the teams of LNB can also be seen as the result of incrementalist policies, which following the tendency to prioritize more demanded social issues, such as health, education, and security, gradually shifts resources previously allocated to sport for these social areas, believed to be more relevant to society. The same can be understood regarding the need to meet the claim of application of financial resources in actions/programs that meet a higher number of people or of greater financial shortage. According to Lindblom (1979, p. 517), “incrementalism consists of political change through small steps” and this statement comes with a logic that complex decisions cannot be analyzed in their entirety, therefore partial strategies have better results in their design.

 

    The disposal of public facilities such as gymnasiums or sports arenas, for free or at reduced costs is another way that municipalities can contribute with teams participating in NBB, since in the private context the maintenance or leasing of such spaces has a high cost. In the academic literature, we did not find any studies in Brazil that separated this kind of state support from other forms of support such as direct financing, incentive laws, scholarships, payment of coaches, etc. Thus, we understand that the data related to the disposal of municipal gymnasiums for teams participating in the NBB (Table 3) should be analyzed along with those described in Tables 1 and 2, since the clubs may have cited the municipal administration of their cities as supporter due only to the disposal of a gymnasium. For Barlow, & Forrest (2015), the survival of professional clubs headquartered in smaller centers depends on public subsidies, with the free disposal of sports arenas being one of the alternatives. Considering that most clubs in NBB located in countryside cities do not have their own headquarters, this option proves viable.

 

    Support only with disposal or lease of public spaces, to some extent, can also be considered as an incrementalist practice, since it can be a step taken by public decision-makers to support a high performance team and that, if there is the perception that the population does not show rejection or even feel represented by this kind of support, the next step might be a transfer in the form of a financial contribution. As Johnson (1988) suggests, small strategic movements allow for the experience of a feeling of action. In case of success, a full development of the strategy can occur.

 

	NBB9	NBB8	NBB7	NBB6	NBB5	NBB4
Total teams	15	15	16	17	18	15
NBB teams that had sponsorship/financial support and/or counted with disposal of the municipal gymnasium	6	8	9	9	10	9
Percentage	40	53.33	56.25	52.94	55.55	60

Source: Research data

 

    The participation percentages of municipal administrations in the teams participating in NBB increase compared to Table 2, but basically obey the same curve of the first analysis. There is a decrease from NBB4 to NBB6 (60%, 55.55%, and 52.94%), an increase from this season to NBB7 (56.25%), and again a decrease in NBB8 (53.33%), reaching the lowest values found in NBB9 (40%).

 

    These data help to corroborate previous analyses, i.e., there is a participation of municipal administrations in the sponsorship/support to clubs that participate of NBB, which causes a certain instability in the continuity of the clubs activities. However, it was possible to detect a descending line regarding public participation.

 

Conclusions 

 

    Regarding the intended objectives, we confirmed that the sponsorship/support of municipal administrations to clubs that participate of NBB is common, especially to teams that are not located in state capitals, cases in which it is almost a rule. Therefore, just as the literature points to the dominance of high performance sports funding by the Federal Government, it was noticed that this is also recurring on a smaller scale, the municipal context, reaching indexes between 40 and 60%. Apparently, there is positive side to having the government as a partner, as it demands less effort to convince political leaders as compared to the private initiative leaders. However, political changes and the instability of the relationship between public and private entities are factors that make it risky to depend mainly on this source of funding.

 

Another aspect to be highlighted is the decrease of the sponsorship/support of municipal administrations to teams that participate of NBB over the studied period, which can be an indicator that it is not just LNB that has become more professionalized, but also the clubs have managed to capture more financial resources from the private sector through better organization.

 

    Given these empirical findings and the confrontation with the political science theory, it seems plausible to understand these municipal public policies in support of sports as incrementalist policies. Apparently, continuous changes, albeit subtle, would be motivated primarily by two factors: the commodification and professionalization of Brazilian basketball, demanding less Government funding; and the gradual change of focus of the public power, giving more attention to the social area, as determined by the Federal Constitution.

 

Notes 

1. The cells filled with (-) in black color indicate that the team did not participate in that edition of NBB. Cells filled with the letter Y indicate that teams possessed support/sponsorship from municipal administrations. Cells filled with the letter N correspond to participation in the competition without receiving support/sponsorship from municipal administrations.

2. Universo/Goiânia was not sponsored by the municipal administration, but counted with resources from the State Government.

3. The Official Games of the State of Paraná, Brazil, are sports competitions involving the selected from municipalities in the state, for adults (Open Games of Paraná), university students (University Games of Paraná), young people (Youth Games of Paraná), and people with disabilities (Paralympic Games of Paraná).

References 

 

Almeida, B.S. (2010). O financiamento do esporte olímpico e suas relações com a política no Brasil [The funding of Olympic sport and its relationships with politics in Brazil] [Thesis Master's degree in Physical Education, Federal University of Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil].

 

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Lecturas: Educación Física y Deportes, Vol. 25, Núm. 273, Feb. (2021)