participation in sport and the economic impact

Participants in sports today have grown by a big percentage compared to the previous 10 years. Some sports are more popular than others for many reasons. For example Different sports are advertised differently in the UK eg, football is the most talked about sport in the media in the UK. Football is on TV, radio, in the newspaper and all over the Internet. Also in schools across the UK football is the most common sport played too. This is why football is one of the most common sports in the UK. An example of a sport which is not that common amongst the people in the UK is judo. People will have not even heard, watched or even participated. There are many reason s for this. One reason for this could be that it is not introduced to people at a young age when they are in schools, colleges or at leisure centres. If this sport was introduced to people at a young age, more people wold participate in it and it would become one of the major sports in the UK. Another reason why this sport is not that popular is because There may be less facilities and coaches to teach this sport to people in the UK.

Because swimming and football are the two most common sports in the UK they can have a massive impact in keeping the people of the UK fit and healthy. For example the more people who start to watch these sports will want play the sports too and will start to take interest in the sport.

This can have a good effect on the economics in the UK. The first reason this will happen is because people who want to play sport must need sports clothing and equipment in order to participate in sports. an example of this is when a rugby player joins a club he will need kit, boots and other protective equipment suitable for rugby. From this the economy of sport will grow as all people who participate in sport will need sports merchandise. 

Since 2009 the money spent on sports merchandise has increased by a big number, this tells us that more people are starting to take part in sports. 

In this graph we can see that the most common sports people participate in are swimming, football, athletics, cycling and golf. because of a high percentage of people participating in these sports, more and more people buy sports related products and more people start to attend sporting events which leads to a increase in the sports economy. 

Since 2010 the amount of money spent on sports merchandise has gone up, the reason for this is people have started to get money after the 2009 recession and are now using their spare money on sporting goods.

Participation at gyms and fitness centres have increased. They have increased because now there are more role models for people to look up to and people want to look like them so they join the gym. another reason could be that people may have been referred by their doctors to join the gym for health reasons and that's why they have joined the gym. The participation at gyms may have increased, however the amount of gym equipment bought has decreased since 2010. A reason that this has happened could be that people tend to take part in other sports rather than doing explosive muscle training, or because there are a growing number of gyms around the UK, that's why people go to gyms instead of buying their own equipment.

Sport related travel has increased since 2009 too, because of big sporting events like champions league matches and other big sporting events. Most people tend to go to sporting events in groups and only a small number of people travel alone. Because there are issues going on in the motor industry and insurance is very high people go by coach and other accommodation. However the percentage of sports related travel is gradually going up.

Sports related gambling has had a massive boost since 2006 because more people are taking part in sports and because of that more professionals are being discovered, so this is why sports gambling has become more popular.