We have long known that sport was a central part of Irish life but one of the key findings in the Sport Ireland ‘Researching the Value of Sport in Ireland Report has been quantifying that in terms of the amount of money we spend.

The total expenditure on sport-related goods and services for 2018 was €3,341.6m, or 3.1 per cent of total spending in that year, representing an
increase of 77 per cent relative to overall consumer spending of 2008.

The largest single element of that is the subscriptions and fees we pay to sport clubs. This amounts to
€622.9m, an increase of €232.5million on what we spent ten years previously.

The popularity of fitness and dance clubs has also risen significantly with memberships in that category climbing by almost €350 million to a figure of €490.9 million.

In order to participate within those clubs, we clearly need to spend money on sports clothing and footwear. €568.8 million to be precise, up from €338.4 in 2008. That will clearly be good news for brands like LifeStyle Sports, Intersport Elverys and Sports Direct who are servicing what is rising demand.

The overall growth of consumer spending in the same period was only 60 per cent so sport has been a stronger than average sector within that greater scheme.

We also spent €427.2 million on admission to venues to participate in sport, and €109.9 million on going to watch sporting events in that year, when All Ireland Championships, Six nations Rugby and Republic of Ireland games were played to capacity crowds.

Failure to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia had a marked impact on our spending on overseas travel relating to International Sporting Events which was at a similar level to 2008 at €167.6 million.

Domestic travel though had increased by 50 per cent over the same period from €40 million to €60 million.

The amount of money we paid to TV companies for sports subscriptions stood at €147.1 million, up almost 60 per cent, while another stand out figure from the data was the amount of money spent on sport-related gambling at €227.7 million.

Join us tomorrow when we will be looking at the data on Sport related employment, and how that has also climbed as a percentage of the overall workforce.

 

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