Yeah. I get it. They are kicking that ball around and people are watching them do it. Now tell me again why my municipality spent 10 million Euros on a facility dedicated to this activity?
@Algot I can only find pragmatic reasons for using public funds on it. The same sort of reasons the Romans had for spending money on the Colosseum. Now, in Norway, most clubs are non-profit organizations, and the idea often seems to be that the youth in the area need something to do. There isn't anything like college sports here. Youth who want to become athletes go to special schools for that.
@Algot What they have essentially done with youth sports in Norway is pair it with charity. If you play the national lotto game here, some of it goes towards the Norwegian Sports Federation, which in turn supports various amateur clubs around the country, from which professional sports talent is headhunted.
@Algot By labeling sports as charity ("provide leisure activities for kids") you make people feel good about contributing to it. But there's nothing particularly charitable about sports. It's no more charitable than playing chess or Magic The Gathering. They claim it keeps kids "off the streets" and such, but there are more inclusive ways of doing that than sports.
@Algot There are also far cheaper ways of doing sports than building €10M sports facilities. It seems like they just throw money at this without questions asked, and if these facilities are neglected, the media portrays it as unfortunate.
@thor
I believe the state is spending the money to make it easier for others to make money without having to pay for the venue.
They do not think it would be enough to defer taxes for decades.
It is often the state's goal to make "the people" happy...in the US, the courts have said corporations have personhood.
ERGO: "the people are happy"