Weekend Plans With WNBA Sky's Michael Alter Ratner Confident In Isles Playing In Nassau Anticipation High For Griner's WNBA Debut ABC Looking For Indy 500 Ratings Uptick EA Used Tebow Name In NCAA Game Classified Advertisements Executive Transactions Mohegan Sun Not Getting NCAA Tourney Games Roc Nation Sports A "Legitimate Threat" Wild Raise Season-Ticket Prices
Sections
SBD/April 27, 2011/Research and Ratings
Print All-
SGMA: Participation Levels For Team Sports On The Rise After Two-Year Decline
After two years of negative participation growth for most mainstream team sports, there was a turnaround in participation for sports like tackle football, soccer, basketball and baseball last year, according to SGMA's annual report on participation in sports, fitness and recreational activities. The four aforementioned team sports each saw growth in the low single digits with respect to both total and core level participation. "Core" participation is defined as those people who participate on a regular and frequent basis. Lacrosse and other niche team sports like rugby experienced continued strong growth. Lacrosse led the way with a 33% jump among core participants and is likely to go over one million core level participants next year. The SGMA report also notes that while much is written about Baby Boomers (born '45-64), it is Generation Y/Millenials (born '80-99) who are essential to the sports economy. Generation Y/Millenials are twice as likely to take part in team sports than Generation X (born '65-79). SGMA's study was conducted during January and early February among a total of 38,742 online interviews carried out nationwide. Listed below are total participation levels among select team sports, with comparisons to previous years. Total participation includes casual, regular, frequent and core participants (THE DAILY).
TEAM SPORTS PARTICIPATION TRENDS
(CASUAL, REGULAR, FREQUENT, CORE PARTICIPANTS)SPORT '07 (000)'08 (000)'09 (000)'10 (000)1-YEAR % +/-Basketball 25,96126,25424,00726,3049.6%Baseball 16,05815,02013,83714,5585.2%Soccer (outdoor) 13,70814,22313,69114,0752.8%Slow-pitch softball 9,4859,8358,5258,429-1.1%Tackle football 7,9397,6926,7946,9051.6%Flag football n/a7,3106,5536,7673.3%Beach volleyball 3,8784,1714,4765,02812.3%Ultimate frisbee 4,0384,8794,3924,7498.1%Ice hockey 1,8401,9022,1342,1450.5%Wrestling 3,3133,3582,9822,089-29.9%Lacrosse 1,0581,1271,1971,64837.7%Rugby 6176907501,13050.7%




