In the most comprehensive study to date on the subject,
THE DAILY found that more than 422 million spectators
attended sporting events in the U.S. and Canada during the
'99 sports calendar year. The 422 million figure represents
an average of 1.4 sports events attended during the year for
each of the approximately 303 million residents of the U.S.
and Canada, based on the latest population figures. THE
DAILY's study covered the '99 calendar year, but since
several sports conduct their season over two calendar years,
the full '99-2000 pre- regular- and post-season figures were
compiled. While a few of these numbers are not exact, they
do serve as one of the most detailed estimates of the number
of attendees of sports events over the '99-2000 season.
GET THE WHOLE SET -- A GREAT GIFT! Today THE DAILY
offers a summary of total attendance by sport. In addition,
see (#28) for "The Body Count" for baseball numbers over the
2000 season. Over the next month, THE DAILY will continue
to present complete data by sport (THE DAILY):
RK SPORT TOTAL '99-00 ATTENDEES
1) Baseball 116,393,300 (27.6%)
2) Football 65,091,979 (15.4%)
3) Basketball 64,926,138 (15.4%)
4) Hockey 60,512,547 (14.3%)
5) Horse Racing 40,225,535 ( 9.5%)
6) Auto Racing 25,623,925 ( 6.1%)
7) Greyhound Racing 12,348,147 ( 2.9%)
8) Golf 12,223,496 ( 2.9%)
9) Soccer 8,993,216 ( 2.1%)
10) Tennis 3,413,458 ( 0.8%)
11) Rodeo 2,684,191
12) Jai Alai 1,950,508
13) Volleyball 1,722,997
14) AAU 1,100,000
15) Boxing 903,500
16) Bowling 690,000
17) Lacrosse 612,251
18) Pan-Am Games 500,000
19) NCAA Softball 423,145
20) U.S. Track & Field 374,522
12) Curling 363,587
22) X Games 301,390
23) Gravity Games 200,000
24) Figure Skating 198,468
25) NAIA 181,625
26) Canadian Winter Games 150,000
27) NCAA Wrestling 93,566
28) Canadian Interathletic Univ. 90,000
29) NCAA Gymnastics 45,605
"THE BODY COUNT" GRAND TOTAL: 422,337,096
U.S./CANADA '99 POPULATION 303,182,113
