Just How Big Is the Sports Industry?
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Just How Big Is the Sports Industry?
Many of the estimates of the sports industry are based primarily on revenues. The full economic magnitude of the business of sports can’t be accurately measured. There also needs to be a measure of how sports compares to other global industries. Many of the ways to measure a company’s size are based on the size of the company. The size of a company can be measured by the number of employees it has, as well as how much money it has. There are many ways to estimate a company’s size, such as how many employees there are, how much it costs, and how much the company has to invest in its products and services. There is also the matter of how many people are involved in a company or industry, which can be summed up as ‘the number of people in this company or in this industry’ or ‘how many people do we know about this industry or this industry?’ There are a number of ways to study a company, including how many of its employees are involved and how many are employed.
The sports industry has been in a period of unprecedented growth and skyrocketing revenues, valuations and ticket prices. Every NFL team receives more than $400 million from the league- before a single down is played. Top MLB teams now earn more than $4 million per game in ticket revenue, and just on Wednesday it was reported the NBA’s L.A. Lakers were on track to be sold at a $10 billion valuation- a record for any franchise on the globe. Consumer spending on sports and sports-related entertainment is also at an all-time high.
Fans aren’t just watching the games and buying tickets and merchandise- they’re investing in sports too, and spending more than ever on exercise equipment, golf clubs and pickleball, among others. It all begs the question, just how big is the sports industry? And what’s coming next?
What Are ‘Sports’?
“Sports” can mean many different things, and there are widely divergent estimates of the size of this economy in the absence of an accepted definition of ‘What Is the Sports Industry?’ The full economic magnitude of the business of sports can’t be accurately measured without a model that captures its complete scope and structure. There also needs to be a measure of how sports compares to other global industries.
Many of the estimates of the sports industry are based primarily on revenues produced by sports events. These estimates completely overlook the broader range of how sports fans spend their money beyond attending or watching sports events, and they omit some of the fastest growing segments such as sports betting, fantasy sports and esports. They ignore the billions of dollars spent on sports products such as sportswear, equipment and sports medicine, as well as fees paid to play sports like golf and tennis, access to gyms for exercise and outdoor recreation such as hiking, camping and fishing. Finally, they fail to account for the massive amount spent on recreational vehicles such as motorized golf carts, jet skis, snowmobiles and camper vans.
DEFINING THE SPORTS INDUSTRY
We began addressing these major limitations by building a model that accounted for the numerous ways fans consumed sport. Consider “Joe’s Family. “
Joe goes to major league sports events, buys an NFL streaming package, engages in sports betting and has a fantasy football team. Joe buys sneakers, sports apparel, golf clubs, pays for golf and has a gym membership. His wife buys sneakers, sports apparel and pays for Pilates classes while they fund their daughter’s closet full of sneakers and sports apparel, youth sports and skiing lessons along with ski equipment and the family’s summer hiking, camping, fishing and rafting trips.
This led us to the development of a broad definition of the sports industry built on 37 independent sources of sports industry revenue that are well-defined and measurable. A first critical first step in answering the question How Big Is the Sports Industry? required some organization.
A Periodic Table of Sports Spending: The next step was to organize these independent revenue sources into a cohesive structure that defined the full scope and magnitude of the sports industry. An extensive review of commercial reports and academic papers providing measures of the size of the sports industry, coupled with an examination of how other industries were sized, provided a number of helpful ideas for building a model that captured the broad expanse of the global sports industry. One model that influenced us was how Dimitri Mendeleev in 1863 organized 63 chemicals into a structure called The Periodic Table of Elements. We took a similar approach in organizing the 37 measurable sports industry revenues into the Best-Howard Sports Business Model.
This led us to examine the similarities and themes that could be used to categorize these 37 sports industry revenue segments into an organizational structure. What emerged were three Sports Industry Domains.
Fan Engagement : 15 revenue segments that capture the multiple ways sports fans experience and spend on sports by attending live events, watching sports, and engaging in sports entertainment (e.g., sports betting, fantasy sports, sport video games).
: 15 revenue segments that capture the multiple ways sports fans experience and spend on sports by attending live events, watching sports, and engaging in sports entertainment (e.g., sports betting, fantasy sports, sport video games). Sports Products: 10 segments that produce revenues from consumer spending on sportswear, sport equipment, and sports health (e.g. sports medicine, nutrition).
10 segments that produce revenues from consumer spending on sportswear, sport equipment, and sports health (e.g. sports medicine, nutrition). Sports Participation: 12revenues segments that capture User Fees paid to participate in sports recreation, fitness, and outdoor recreation in the form of use fees, memberships, licenses, permits, and rentals.
As shown in the model above, each of the domains are further broken down into nine core areas, three for each of the domains. The number of revenue sources for each of the core areas range from three to six, with Sports Entertainment accounting for the largest number of the total 37 sports industry revenue-producing segments. The five principal revenue sources for the core area of Sports Events include: Gate Revenues, Media Rights, Sponsorships, Merchandise and Venue Construction.
This structure, like the periodic chart, demonstrates how all these elements fit into a comprehensive definition of the sports industry. It also provides a structure to place new and emerging sources of sports industry revenues such as sports streaming services, pickle ball or innovations in sports health.
SPORTS INDUSTRY SIZE: Using this definition of scope and structure we can systematically and reliably estimate the size of the sports industry by measuring each of the 37-sports industry revenue segments. This ‘bottoms-up approach’ is used to measure the full economic magnitude of our sports industry model which yielded an estimated global revenue of $2.65 trillion in 2023 placing sports business industry among the TOP 10 industries in the world.
The Best-Howard Sports Business Model provides these important benefits:
Size of Sports Industry : Fully documented accounting of size and growth rate.
: Fully documented accounting of size and growth rate. United States Profile : U.S. revenues presented separately for each model segment; including their percent of global totals.
: U.S. revenues presented separately for each model segment; including their percent of global totals. Comprehensive Data : Global and U.S. participation and revenues trends across all 37 industry revenue segments.
: Global and U.S. participation and revenues trends across all 37 industry revenue segments. Sports Industry Domains : Most comprehensive model of the size and structure of the sports industry.
: Most comprehensive model of the size and structure of the sports industry. Sports Revenue Segments: How each contributes to core area revenues & growth.
This op-ed offers great value for anyone working in the sports industry. For a much more detailed account of our model and its rich data, insights and applications we refer to two resources:
This 23-page online report that amplifies content of this Op-Ed for $19.95. Click here to preview with an option to purchase.
This 12-chapter, 367-page book provides in-depth content on all facets of the sports industry and is available for $79.50 online and $99.50 print. Click here to Preview with an option to purchase.
Roger Best is an emeritus professor of marketing and co-founder of the Sports Product Management Program at the University of Oregon. He is also the author of Market-Based Management. Dennis Howard is an emeritus professor of sports business and the former Warsaw Sports Business Center Program Academic Director at the University of Oregon . He is also the author of Financing Sport.
Source: https://www.sportico.com/business/sports/2025/how-big-is-the-sports-industry-1234857195/