As part of its "Sports Business At The End Of The
Millennium" special, the SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL reports in
this week's issue that the SPORTS INDUSTRY IS A $212.53B
INDUSTRY. The SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL writes that the roughly
$213B figure "represents our best thinking and months of
work. We have lots of confidence in that number. But we
learned something perhaps even more important. We learned
the criteria for calculating the size of the industry ...
what to include and what to leave out. ... The simple
definition of the sports industry: money generated by
organized sports. ... It does not include non-organized
recreational sports." This study also did not include
outdoor rec activities such as fishing, camping and rock
climbing (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 12/20 issue).
MORE ROOM TO GROW? On Friday's "CBS Evening News," Bill
Giest examined the future of sports. SI's Frank Deford: "I
guarantee you, no matter what the tickets cost and how
rotten the athletes are, the stands will still be filled,
come 2060, 2070." Giest: "All agree that sports in the 21st
century will somehow become more pervasive and more bizarre.
And we'll be watching" (CBS, 12/17).
