p14,16 Participation 7/17/08 11:53 AM Page 14
MARKETING - Sports Business
SGB
Sports and Outdoor
www.sgb-sports.com
Who's playing what?
David Tucker, Leisure Research, has a look at who's playing what, where and why…
T
he sports shop has always played a vital role in Sport’s base broadened out in the 1970s and 1980s but surveys from the national sports councils (e.g. Sport
providing the equipment and apparel needed for the social and health benefits did not immediately set the England’s Active People Survey, similar surveys available
local amateurs to play sport. But anyone who has tills ringing in the sport shop. By the 1990s, fitness for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland). The private
worked in the sports trade for a length of time enthusiasts wanted to keep fit without the lifestyle sector provides tools such as Target Group Index’s Sport+
knows that the market never stands still and that there complications of learning a sport, joining a team or and Participant 360°, giving in-depth detail for individual
have been some profound changes in the trade over the subscribing to a club. It was enough to take the kids sports (both produced by BMRB, a research agency).
long term. swimming at the “fun pool”, or go jogging around the These surveys usually take a broad view of physical
One of the biggest changes has been among the most block, or sign up for aerobics classes, all to the detriment activity, so that Active People covers “sport or active
popular sports and other activities that consumers take of the equipped sports that sustain the typical sports shop. recreation”, which involves 21% of adults in England on a
part in to keep themselves fit and healthy, or simply to Squash, one of the big sports of the 1970s, suffered badly “regular” basis: three times a week or more, for at least 30
enjoy life more by socialising. This article takes a look at as former players contented themselves with keeping fit by minutes, at “moderate intensity”. Getting down to specific
the popular sports (especially the “equipped” sports, using a gym or going jogging. activities, the general fitness group is led – in order of
supplied by the sports retailer) as well as some of the By the early 2000s, the health club was the fashionable popularity – by walking or rambling, swimming, keep fit
many minority sports that make up this complex market. place to keep fit. The time and money spent on joining a or aerobics classes, cycling, jogging or working out in a
club meant that only the most active and affluent of gym. On a regular basis, each of these involves between
Some Historical Perspective sports enthusiasts could also fit in playing a competitive 10% and 15% of adults. (The surveys usually only involve
As a market researcher, I first got stuck into the sports sport requiring a visit to the local sports shop to buy a adults – children have to be interviewed separately – and
statistics back in the late 1970s. By then, a major change in piece of equipment or some technical apparel. But the swimming or cycling would rank higher for the whole
participation was already under way, thanks to the statistical surveys kept on coming, showing that while population.)
investment by local councils in sparkling new sports many participation sports were declining gradually – Turning to the equipped and competitive sports, the
centres and swimming pools. The great new idea was that squash was one of the more dramatic exceptions – the striking feature of the participation “league table” is that it
sport was not just something for youngsters, mainly boys new activities were generally taking their place alongside has changed very little over the last 30 years, the period
and young men, but a good thing for everyone to take the traditional. that has seen the rise of the health club, of jogging and
part in, young or old, male or female. (Today, we would aerobics classes (i.e. modern fitness activities).
call it an “inclusive” idea.) Long-running surveys like the Measuring the Participation Market Today a71 Football, the national sport, remains unchallenged as
government’s General Household Survey and the private For measuring sports participation, the General the leading competitive game, played (in England) by
Target Group Index proved that participation was Household Survey has been replaced, for sports and 19% of men (3% of women) at least once a year.
broadening out to include more people, producing a fitness, by a Taking Part Survey (Department for Culture, Indoor play has stimulated the game in this decade
general rise in the numbers taking part in sport. Media and Sport) and there are more specific sports (e.g. Powerleague now has 43 5-a-side centres and
14 JUNE 2008
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