Over the past five years, the business of sport has become a £20B ($31.5B)-a-year industry in the U.K., supporting some 450,000 jobs, according to Andrew Cave of the London TELEGRAPH. But it has "not always been that way." Only 30 years ago, "business and sport were rarely mentioned in the same breath." Football was "beset by crowd trouble, old stadiums and a lack of external funding." The Olympic Games had suffered "major boycotts." Fortunately for sport, "business came to the rescue, identifying opportunities, creating markets and sparking
unprecedented investment in the games that Britain and the world has
traditionally loved to play." According to consultancy Oxford Economics, the London Olympics will have
contributed £16.5B ($26B) to Britain's gross domestic product by '17.
Cycling now brings in £3B ($4.7B) annually to the U.K. economy, "while the amounts
paid to televise English Premier League football have again broken
records." Progress will "continue this year," with the Rugby World Cup
expected by Ernst & Young to deliver nearly £1B ($1.58B) of benefits to the U.K.
economy. The Telegraph is partnering with Standard Life Investments to produce The Business of Sport Series over the next 12 months. Another change over the past 30 years "has been a recognition by
business that sports can play a key role in winning hearts and minds and
transform how companies are perceived." IMG Consulting Managing Dir Rob Mason had a "close view of this as co-owner of sports agency SBI Group" before its acquisition by IMG in '07. He believes that sports sponsorships and partnerships are "conferring
benefits such as deeper engagement with customers and motivation of
staff, beyond the traditional avenues of brand awareness and
hospitality." The actions that sports have taken to professionalize themselves in
business strategy and administration, meanwhile, "have vastly reduced any
reputational risk previously associated with sports endorsements." Mason: "The
way that sports businesses are run nowadays is necessarily more
transparent and professional, and more focused on the customer -- the
fan. Sport is entertainment and there is plenty of competition" (TELEGRAPH, 5/13).
