English sport defying recession – report 16/08/2010 |
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A new report from Sport England has revealed that sport now plays a bigger part in the country’s economy than at any time for the last 25 years.
The study by Sheffield Hallam University shows sport now accounts for 2.3 per cent of all consumer spending and 1.8 per cent of employment.
It reveals that football is the largest contributor, but that all sports are helping to boost the wider economy.
Researchers found consumer spending on sport was up by 138 per cent in real terms between 1985 and 2008 to £17.3bn.
The report also showed that the number of people with sport-related jobs had grown during that time to 441,000 – 1.8 per cent of all employment in England.
Mihir Warty, director of strategy and research at Sport England, said it was appropriate that the report was released as the new Premier League season was getting underway.
"Football is a huge part of it, and it is fantastic to see that sport in general has been growing so much faster than the overall economy," he told BBC Radio 5 Live.
"A large part of the growth has been driven by the explosion of media rights, and certainly the Premier League has had a massive effect."
He added that the Premier League had helped drive a five-fold increase in sportswear sales.
"But even beyond football, people are more and more seeing sport as part of their everyday lives – it really has moved from the back to the front pages of newspapers, and that has had a major effect on the economy,” Warty continued.
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