THE INFLUENCE OF SPORTS SPONSORSHIP ON THE ECONOMY OF NATIONAL SPORTS INDUSTRY

Abstract

Relevance.Economic sports market impact analysis of the national economy is significant in thecontext of eachcountry (Cingienė,Laskienė 2013). Sports marketdevelopsand sellsa variety of products(goods and services)contributingto the country's gross domestic product increasing value (Laurinavicius,Cingienė, 2011).It is noted that the support of the sponsors(Official Statistics Portal,2014) is one of the largestsources of funds in the country, thus becoming an important contribution to the sport sector and the country’seconomy. Sports economy is still a relatively new thing,and thescientific studies of the importance ofconstituents, as sport sponsorship, have notbeenconductedyet in Lithuanianor internationally. This raisesthescientific question: what is the contribution ofprovidedsport sponsorship, asan influenceforthebenefittothe economy ofthe country'ssports industry.The aimwasto investigate theinfluence ofsport sponsorshipfor the Lithuanian sports industry economy. The goals: 1) to discuss the importance of sport sponsorship inthe integration of sports industry; 2)toidentify the factors and the mutual relationship between sportssponsorship and economic impact indicators, in addition to the importance of disclosure ofachievements(medals).Methods: quantitativeresearch, carried out in the following phases: empiric data collection,statistical processingdatamethods, analysis of the results. Data processing and statistical methods:comparison of data (horizontal and vertical analysis), selected indicatorsforgraphic portrayal, correlationanalysis.The study rationale.Wedistinguished6 main indicators of economic benefits of sportsponsorshipassessment:income from commercial activities,the number of sports facilities, the number of employees inthe sports sector, the overall medal count in the year,the medals’count(World and EuropeanChampionships)of the year,the number of sporting events thatare a part of the sports industry economicassessment indicators as income, employability, added value.Results and discussion.Sponsorshiphas grown each year, but there was a marked gap between2009 and 2010, the amount ofsponsorshipreceived. In 2010, sport was given almost threetimes more thanin 2009. The estimation of a basic changeshows that support has increased by more than 18 millioneuros.Revenues from sports activities also evolved significantly,increased nearly six-fold compared with 2009.Sports facilities increased by 417. The number of employees in the sports sector in comparison with 2009increased by 546 employees.The correlation matrix approach results reflecttheimportance of other indicators related tothesponsorshipreceived from sponsors.Theappliedcorrelation method yieldstheresultsthatshow if there is astatistical relationship and whatitsstrengthis.Sponsorshipreceived from sponsors and revenue fromcommercial activities hadvery strong statistical relationship (0.9978). The number of employees in thesports sector and receivedsportsponsorship showmore thanaveragestatisticalrelation(0.5306). Thenumber of organized sporting events also have a strong statistical connection with thesponsorshipreceived from sponsors (0.7144), as well as won medals count (-0.7081)demonstratethe importance of sportssponsorshipandtheimpact on the developmentof thesoft powerof the country.Conclusions.Theanalysis of basicchangesrevealed that all investigated indicators grew.Correlationanalysis revealed that thesponsorship received from sponsorsindicated itsstrong contributiontothe development of the sports sector and the improvement of economic indicators in the country. Thesescientific studies of these indicators are defined as estimates to determine the economic benefits generated bysport.Keywords:sports sponsorship, sports industry economics, employability, income, commercialactivities.