On the fast track? Using standard contracts in public–private partnerships for sports facilities: A case study

Highlights

•	Investigation of the use of standard contracts for the provision of sports facilities.
•	Standardization promises less room for negotiations and shorter procurement times.
•	Case study shows successful and unsuccessful usage of standard contracts.
•	Interests of private sector, local governments, and central government collide.
•	Caution is advised when standardizing contracts for various assets and contexts.

Abstract

Public–private partnerships (PPPs) for the provision of public infrastructure involve costly contracting processes. Standard contracts are modularly structured documents, which provide standard terms for these processes; it is argued that they help reduce transaction costs by limiting the room for contractual negotiations. We investigate the use of standard contracts in an embedded case study of a PPP policy program in the Belgian sports sector, and apply notions of standardization theory and transaction cost economics to explain the differences in the success of using these contracts. On the basis of desk research and interviews, our study demonstrates both successful and unsuccessful usage of standard contracts across a range of subcases, which include artificial pitches, sports halls, and multifunctional sports centers. Unsuccessful cases were characterized by an interference of local governments’ interests that was poorly managed by the leading public actor, and a persistently rigid attitude at the negotiation table of this latter actor. We further relate the different degrees of success to inappropriate government responses to the assets at hand. Finally, we proclaim a more cautious approach toward the standardization of contracts, both in theory and practice.

Keywords:

• Public–private partnerships
• Governance
• Contracting
• Sports facilities

Acknowledgments

This research was funded by the Flemish Government through the Policy Research Center on Governmental Organization – Decisive Governance (SBOV III, 2012–2015).

Notes

1 Bloso is an autonomous agency promoting sports in Flanders.

2 This decree was part of a policy called Sports for Everyone (in Dutch: Sport voor Allen), which was implemented between 2009 and 2014, and dismantled after that (Flemish Sports Federation, 2015).

3 This definition differs from the classical economic understanding as we see the public sector as the main standard setter when it comes to creating template agreements for PPP (see Van den Hurk and Verhoest, 2016).

4 The public documents were obtained through a search query in the database of the Flemish Parliament. The search term Sportinfrastructuurplan (Sports Infrastructure Program) resulted in more than 120 hits between 2003 and mid-2013. We retrieved project documents from interview respondents.

5 Finalizing PPP arrangements involves a contract close and a financial close which are typically executed on different dates. In the FSIP they always took place within the timeframe of a few days or less.