Economic mechanisms for supporting and developing university sports in the regions of North-West Russia

The development of university sports plays a key role in shaping a healthy lifestyle for young people, promoting mass and professional sports, and increasing the competitiveness of universities. However, in the regions of Northwestern Russia, there are significant imbalances in the financing of university sports infrastructure, which reduces the availability of appropriate resources for students. The paper analyzes the existing models of financing university sports, identifies key barriers to attracting private investment, and suggests promising directions for the development of the situation. The methods of regulatory framework analysis, statistical analysis, expert assessments, SWOT- and PEST-analysis are used. According to the results of the study, the level of provision of universities in the region with sports facilities is 61.4 %, and student satisfaction with sports conditions is 63.9 %. It is concluded that the optimization of economic mechanisms to support university sports, including the development of public-private partnerships, the creation of endowment funds and tax incentives for businesses, will increase its sustainability, improve infrastructure and increase student involvement in regular sports.