How Big Is The Sports Industry?
By Dr. Roger Best and Dr. Dennis Howard
Sports are universal. Around the globe, sports teams perform before enthusiastic fans at modern venues, and even larger audiences watch on TV or stream online. An increasing number of interested viewers now wager considerable sums on sports outcomes.
Millions of people of every race, ethnicity, and nationality spend countless hours participating in their favorite sports and recreation activities and considerable money purchasing the equipment they need, from golf clubs to cricket bats. How much do the revenues generated by sporting events, participation costs (e.g., fees, lessons, travel), and sportswear and equipment purchases total?
It would seem to be a straightforward question. But the answer is complicated. Using the process below we defined the scope of the sports industry and then created a structure to enable us to estimate the size of the global sports industry.
Existing revenue estimates for the global sports industry range from $471 billion to $1.4 trillion. What leads to the nearly trillion-dollar discrepancy? Sports industry revenue estimates have traditionally lacked a well-defined structure and failed to measure all, or even the same, essential dimensions.
The Best-Howard Model fully captures the sports industry’s scope and structure. As shown, the model includes three core domains: Fan Engagement, Sport Products, and Sports Participation.
The domains capture the complete breadth and detail of the industry and provide a comprehensive structure for estimating the economic magnitude of sports and recreation activity worldwide. The domains and their core area breakdowns serve as a framework for collecting participation and spending data for every industry segment. The aggregated totals across the domains provide a composite measure of the sports industry’s overall size.
The Best-Howard Sports Industry Model
The Best-Howard Model finds the sports industry’s total value well over the Google search estimates below.
“Existing revenue estimates for the global sports
industry range from $471 billion to $1.4 trillion.”
Best-Howard Model - Sports Industry
