NASAK: National sports grounds

The National Sports Facility Concept (NASAK) is built on the principles of the Swiss Federal Act on Spatial Planning, thereby serving as a planning and coordination tool. The purpose of the NASAK is to maintain or improve the quality of sports facilities of national importance for the country’s sports federations. This planning tool forms the basis of the federal government’s financial aid for sports facilities of national importance.
With the federal decrees on financial aid for sports facilities of national importance of 17 December 1998 (NASAK 1, CHF 60 million), 3 October 2000 (NASAK 2, CHF 20 million), 20 September 2007 (NASAK 3, CHF 14 million) and 27 September 2012 (NASAK 4, CHF 70 million), the Swiss parliament approved four injections of credit, coming to CHF 164 million in total, for investment in the construction of specific facilities deemed to be important and urgently needed. The contributions from the federal government cover 5–25% of the investment costs. The business itself is not supported.
The Federal Office of Sport (FOSPO) worked closely with private and public partner institutions from the sports industry (Swiss Olympic, national sports federations, Swiss Top Sport, cantonal and selected municipal sports authorities and relevant federal offices, among others) to prepare the four corresponding sets of credit documentation for submission to the National Council and Council of States. The NASAK is anchored in the Sport Promotion Act. The criteria for the national importance of sports facilities and for financial aid can be found in the relevant implementing ordinances from the Federal Council and the department.
Some 120 properties are now listed in the catalogue of sports facilities of national importance. Around two-thirds of these properties have already received financial aid under the NASAK initiative or are set to do so in future. An important prerequisite for NASAK financial aid for building a facility is that at least one national sports federation has concluded a long-term contract of use (duration: 10–20 years) that is to be approved by FOSPO.
The NASAK programmes 1 to 3 were largely complete by the start of 2016. NASAK 4 is under way; agreements on financial contributions under this scheme may continue to be concluded until late 2017. This sports funding has led to significant improvements in the infrastructure conditions for national sports federations in recent years.