Economic

The Role of Sport

Sport creates significant value for Australia, with at least $7 returned on every dollar expended in the sector (direct economic benefits, the network of volunteers and not-for-profits, avoided health costs, and education benefits).¹

Community sport participation in Australia generates an estimated $18.7 billion annual value in social capital (such as, community engagement and identification, reciprocity, generalised and personalised trust).²

A number of Australian sporting organisations (including Surf Life Saving, Equestrian, Golf, Football, AFL, Motorsport, and Cycling have produced reports highlighting their contribution to the Australian community and economy.^{3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 17}

Sport Sector Economic Contribution

Economic activity

Spending in sport comes from a variety of sources:¹

• User pay (including sports related fees, equipment, clothing, training)
• The private sector (including sponsorship and marketing spend)
• Local government  (mostly infrastructure spending)
• State government  (including sports participation, high performance pathways, infrastructure)
• Australian Government  (including grants and programs from the Australian Sports Commission (ASC) and other Federal departments)

Community sport infrastructure in Australia helps generate $6.3 billion worth of economic benefits including their construction, maintenance and operation, and the increased productivity of those who are physically active as a result of such infrastructure.⁹

The Australian sports sector is estimated to generate $32.2 billion in annual sales, resulting in a contribution to GDP of approximately $14.4 billion.¹⁰

Employment and education

The Australian sports industry is estimated to support 128,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs, around 1.5% of the FTE workforce in Australia.¹⁰

The education benefits that result from children playing sport are worth an estimated $5 billion annually. These benefits are from:¹

• improved cognitive development, learning and retaining information
• building critical life skills
• staying in school longer
• higher lifetime earnings (through better grades and staying in school longer).

The sector employs more than 220,000 people, with volunteers donating 158 million hours to sport each year – equivalent to nearly 90,000 additional full-time jobs and $3 billion in economic value.¹

Employers and university students agree that engagement in sport, especially in a voluntary leadership or management role, provides ‘added value’ beyond standard academic qualifications.¹¹

University graduates who participated in sports earnt more on average than those who didn't participate in sport, or who participated in gym/physical fitness activities only.^{12, 13}

Health and wellbeing

Sport creates $29 billion of net health benefits each year through reduced healthcare costs and early mortality.¹

Community sport infrastructure helps generate:⁹

• $4.9 billion worth of health benefits
• $5.1 billion worth of social benefits

The estimated cost of treating physical activity related injuries in hospitals was $764 million, while managing health conditions due to physical inactivity (such as coronary heart disease and type 2 diabetes) cost the health system $968 million (2018-19).¹⁴

The social benefits of playing community club-based sport once per week are estimated to be worth $5,932 per participant, per year.²

Events and tourism

Australia has been successful in attracting many of the world’s biggest sporting events. These events stimulate economic activity, encourage domestic and international tourism, provide international exposure through broadcast and media, and generate other potential economic and social benefits.

The 2015 Asian Cup event created $128 million in direct expenditure and a 6% increase in club registrations affiliated with Football Australia.¹⁶

The Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games helped create an estimated:¹⁵

• $2.5 billion increase in Gross State Product (GSP) over 9 years; including 21,000 jobs.
• 1.3 million visitors leading up to, during, and after the Games. Spending more than $1.1 billion in the region.
• 100 national and international events secured in Queensland.

Challenges

Economic analyses of the sport sector often use very different methodologies and/or data points (for example, GDP, social return on investment (SROI), looking at the economic contribution of only volunteers, or a specific sport). This can make it difficult to get a clear, overall view of the value of sport, or to compare figures between reports, organisations, or time periods.

Reports are also rarely replicated across time periods, and data can quickly become outdated. Some statistics or data may only be collected intermittently, may not clearly distinguish between sport and related industries, or may not be available without expensive subscriptions or analysis.

Using consistent methods and improved data currency and availability would help to address these challenges. Which would, in turn, strengthen the evidence base for the economic value of sport.