11: The US Sport Industry

People wishing to understand the American sports and recreation industry may be surprised to learn of its relative size plus lengthy history as a critical sector of the US economy.¹ As recently as 2017, estimates placed the “entire sports industry in the United States” as being worth almost US$500 billion or nearly one third the size of the US$1.5 trillion generated by sports (or firms using sports) globally (Plunkett Research, 2017). According to Fontenot (2014), the US total includes the asset value of all professional sports teams, and the revenue generated in professional sports leagues like the National Football League (NFL), Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Hockey League (NHL), National Basketball Association (NBA), Major League Soccer (MLS), auto racing’s NASCAR, as well as all divisions of intercollegiate sport governed by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It also incorporates “amateur and semi-pro spectator sports, the revenue from sporting goods stores and health clubs, and the money that companies spend on sports advertising” (Appendix A). A simple breakout of the major categories might look like this: