Open AccessThis paper aims to analyze the Community Clubs (CCs) as a leisure option in Sao Paulo city (Brazil). We based the comparative management analysis on three models: the Community Club, with private and local management and low or no state intervention; the Club Program School, created within the Community Club, which receives public subsidies and has partial state intervention for management; the city park, which resulted from a transformation of a Community Club in an urban park fully administrated by the state. The research method was based on literature and media material reviews, interviews with managers and observational analysis, in order to contextualize the reality of these spaces and evaluate the types of efforts to reveal the model that may achieve the best results as democratic leisure space. The findings indicate the importance of the local communities’ political participation in the development of these clubs as effective leisure spots