Gross Domestic Sport Product: The Size of the Sport Industry in the United States

Abstract

With a view of verifying the optimistic forecasts of the growth of the sport industry, the paper presents an estimate of the size of the sport industry in 2005 and compares it to a 1995 estimate provided by Meek (1997). Following the methodology of Meek and the guidelines put forth by the United States Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis (2007), we present three estimates for the size of the Gross Domestic Sport Product (GDSP) of the United States of America in 2005—conservative estimate of $168.469 billion, moderate estimate of $189.338 billion, and the liberal estimate of $207.503 billion. A comparison of the moderate estimate with Meek’s 1995 estimate shows that the size of sport industry, in relative terms, actually declined. The sources of the data, rationale for three different estimates, and the values for the components of the GDSP are described and explained.