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William Peterson
Cassel
Eng 1201
31 July 2016
Professional Sports Effect on the Economy
Cristiano Ronaldo, LeBron James, and Roger Federer are all well-known professional
athletes. Along with being well known they are also well paid. According to Forbes magazines
list of the worlds highest paid athletes, these three athletes were the highest paid players of their
respective sport for the year 201 (Forbes). The amount that these players brought in without
endorsements is remarkable. Ronaldo earned 56 million dollars, Federer earned 53.5 million
dollars and James earned 23,2 million dollars (Forbes). Some could question how we can afford
to pay these athletes when we are in debt as an economy. Even though a lot of money is being
spent to pay athletes, the professional sports bring in a lot of revenue in this country and helps
improve the economy. According to Vicki A. Benge an eHow contributor, various economic
indicators measure the strength of the economy. News reports on the national gross domestic
product, or GDP, jobless claims and housing starts, among others, occur regularly.
(Benge). Professional sports have a positive impact on some of the various factors of Americas
economy. Sports are a big deal worldwide, but specifically in the United States. According to
goodjobsfirst.org Americans have a love affair with professional sports, and as with other types
of romance, we like to spend money on the relationship. Total outlays on big-league sports
tickets, advertising, broadcast rights, etc.are well in excess of $100 billion a year.
(Jobsfirst.org). There are a lot of sports fanatics that go all in for their team(s). They dress up,

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wear face paint, buy all types of fan gear, and as stated earlier, buy tickets to go see the game or
event live. These are just some ways that professional teams make money from consumers here
in America and sometimes internationally. Professional sports help the economy by increasing
consumption, increasing production, and increasing international trade.
First of all, consumption is very beneficial for the economy considering that the USA is
a consumption-based economy and America is a consumption-driven society and professional
sports encourages people to consume, consume, and consume (Jobenomics). Professional sports
bring out passion in the fans, and this passion drives them to consume a large amount of
paraphernalia, game tickets, and even traveling arrangements. Consumption is defined as the
value of all goods and services bought by people (Jobenomics). Professional sports help America
to maintain high rates of consumption in an ever changing geo-political/economic environment
(Jobenomics). According to researchamerica.org in 2016 consumers spent 15.5 billion dollars on
super bowl- related purchases alone (research cents). This statistic is amazing considering this is
for a single game in one professional sport. Though it is the most important game in football, the
sport brings in money throughout the entire season from consumers. Think about the amount of
championships for the different professional sports here in America. According to Ben Cohen,
author for the wall street journal, the demand of this years NBA championship game 7 tickets
were close to reaching the levels typically reserved for the super bowl (Cohen). This gives an
idea of how much money this heavily anticipated repeated series brought in to our economy. The
World Series gate receipts kept statistics on the income from the World Series. In 2013 the MLB
World Series brought in a total share of 22.5 million dollars which is a little less than the total
amount the total post season brought in (World Series Gate Receipts). Anthony Crupi, a writer
for Advertising Age Media gave reasons to support the least popular of these sports in 2016 was

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professional hockey, due to some of the factors that came along but they still managed to bring in
45 million off of ads (Crupi). Keep in mind that this is just the numbers for these sports
championship games. These are
individual numbers for these sports
which could all impact our economy
alone, but all of these numbers put
together and it is a positive impact on
our economy. Consumers are pouring
money into professional sports during
the whole season and even post-

Figure 1 Picture taken from wearefanatics.com

Curry's number one in jersey sales in 48 states

season. Jerseys for the winning teams in the championship usually go up, one can visually
observe more people wearing certain jerseys like the Steph Curry jerseys, for example, which
according to ESPN write Darren Rovell has been the number one selling jersey two years in a
row (Rovell). The amount of consumption that these professional sports generate is very
effective in sustaining and improving our economy. Along with consumption is production which
is a very important factor in our economy.
Next there is production, which can possibly be more effective than consumption helping
our economy. According to jobenomics, Production uses resources to create goods and services
that are suitable for use or exchange in a market economy. (Jobenomics). In other words
production creates goods and services that can be bought by people. Economists use GDP to
measure the aggregate value of goods and services produced in the nation. Production levels, part
of GDP data, play a vital role in the health of the economy, and they can affect the economy in
positive and negative ways. (Benge). In this case the production levels that professional sports

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generate affect the economy in a positive way. Professional teams have plenty of jobs to offer
from janitors to team owners. They also have a large demand for product like jerseys and other
fan gear and as that demand increases then production increases and this increase in revenue
could possibly create more jobs. These lower unemployment rates correspond with increase in
production. There is a connection between the consumption and production, higher levels of
employment lead to increases in consumer spending. (Benge). A lot of jobs open up when
professional teams make renovations to their facilities which is quite often. The most popular
renovation was the Dallas Cowboys stadium built in 2009. This job took a lot of working hands
and the Cowboys had to hire contractors to build this stadium creating jobs for that time while
the stadium was being built. The factors of improving the economy are a cycle and all seem to go
hand in hand with one another. The goods being produced by professional sports team dont just
sell in the United States but all around the world.
The last factor of the economy that professional sports helps increase is international
trade; Ream Heakel, a writer for the organization Investopedia, stated International trade is the
exchange of goods and services between Countries. (Heakal). The purpose of international trade
is to expand a Countrys market for both goods and services, or product, which normally would
not be available to them. There are so many sporting goods that are available to be traded to
various countries here in the United States. The big thing on the market is jerseys. On television
there are people from all over the world wearing United States sports jerseys, football,
basketball, and even Olympic jerseys. All of these jerseys dont necessarily come from the
United States because they can be made all over, but the efficiency is what makes the difference.
China makes wholesale jerseys for trade in their Country and other Countries. Even though
jerseys are made in the United States the trade is what one would call specialization. According

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to Investopedia, specialization is defined as a method of trading with a country that can

efficiently produce the item. For example, the United States both make Jerseys but if China does
it more efficiently then the United States would begin to buy Jerseys from China instead of
making them. In return the United States would give China something that is made more
efficiently by them. Another way that professional sports help international trade is tourism.
Tourism is a service that can be traded and according to Carl Bonham and James Mak, two
writers for the Georgetown Journal of International affairs, stated that and North America
have been the largest sources and recipients of international tourist. (Bonham and Mak). Sports
are a big attraction for international guest to come to the United States, they come here and spend
money and buy goods from here that help improve our consumption and increases demand of
certain products. In 2002 the winter Olympics attracted millions of people to the United States
with a surplus of 40 million dollars. These might not have been professional sports but these
Olympians during their regular seasons performed so well that it made people from all over want
to make the trip to come see their favorite athletes. This helps improve the United States
economy and strengthen the international tourism and trade sector. There are some weaknesses
that could possibly affect our economy in a negative way.
The weakness that can come from professional sports is unshared revenue. According to
Justin R. Hunt, author of To Share or Not To Share: Revenue Sharing Structures in Professional
Sports, this is revenue that stays with the professional teams and it doesnt have a positive effect
on our economy. Things like broadcasts, concessions, and local sponsors are all examples of
unshared revenue streams (Hunt). This unshared revenue makes the smaller market teams have
to work harder to keep their teams above water. This can cause the cities of these small markets
to falter in certain areas. There is a solution for this problem and it is having a shared revenue

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plan. Most professional teams have a shared revenue plan to make sure that money and resources
are allocated evenly among the league. The NFL has a shared revenue plan that helps the smallmarket teams be able to sustain their resources and build up their market to bring in more
production and consumers (Hunt). Hunt states that the NFLs model is highly regarded as the
most successful revenue sharing model thanks to strong national, evenly shared television
contracts, and extremely league-driven entities. (Hunt). With this plan it helps local markets
strive which is a direct reflection of the strength of our economy. This plan is the answer to the
problems that unshared revenue can cause in our economy.
As explained above, professional sports ultimately help our economy despite the negative
sides that can be argued. It has explained that they have helped improve the consumption,
production, and international trade in more than one way. Next time a ticket is bought or a game
jersey keep in mind that is a small piece to the grand scheme of things.

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Works Cited
Benge, Vicki A. "How Does Production Affect the Economy?" EHow. Demand Media, n.d. Web.
09 Aug. 2016. (Article 8)
Bonham, Carl, and James Mak. "The Growing Importance of Tourism in the Global Economy
and International Affairs." Georgetown Journal of International Affairs. N.p., 22
July 2014. Web. 09 Aug. 2016. (11)
Cohen, Ben. "The Richest Game in NBA History." WSJ. N.p., 18 June 2016. Web. 09 Aug. 2016.
(Article 4)
Crupi, Anthony. "Stanley Cup Final Ratings Are Toothless." Advertising Age Media RSS. N.p.,
14 June 2016. Web. 09 Aug. 2016. (6)
Curry, Warrior Top U.S. Sales Entering NBA Finals. Digital image. Wearefanatics.com. N.p., 2
June 2016. Web. 9 Aug. 2016. (Article 13)
Heakal, Reem. "What Is International Trade? | Investopedia." Investopedia. N.p., 16 Dec. 2015.
Web. 09 Aug. 2016. (Article 10)
Hunt, Justin R. "To Share or Not to Share: Revenue Sharing Structures in Professional Sports."
N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Aug. 2016. (Article 1)
"Jobenomics." Jobenomics. N.p., 2 Sept. 2013. Web. 09 Aug. 2016. (Article 2)
"Professional Sports." Good Jobs First. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Aug. 2016. (9)
"Research Takes Cents." Research!America. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Aug. 2016. (Article 3)

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Rovell, Darren. "Back-to-back: Curry Again Tops NBA Jersey Sales." ESPN.com. N.p., 12 May
2016. Web. 09 Aug. 2016. (7)
"The World's Highest Paid Athletes." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, n.d. Web. 09 Aug. 2016.
Watson, Dale L. "The 2002 Olympics - Cooperation Between Federal, State, Local, and Private
Agencies to Address Public Safety Concerns." FBI. N.p., 31 May 2001. Web. 09
Aug. 2016. (article 12)
"World Series Gate Receipts and World Series Player Shares." World Series Gate Receipts and
World Series Player Shares. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Aug. 2016. (5)

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