Canada’s Sporting Industry

Canada’s Sporting Industry

by Adam Goodwin | 2014 |  Last Updated: April 13, 2014

Spectator Sports

Many argue, sports is a big part of the lives of many Canadians.  Many more likely argue winter sports are Canada’s ‘thing’.

How popular are sports in Canada?

Statistics Canada

Looking at data available from Statistics Canada (the data experts of the Government of Canada), in 2012, the sports industry was worth over $4 billion Canadian dollars!

Type of Sport

However, there is little else we can analyse based on the data widely available.  Does most of this money concentrate in professional sports?  Canada has several professional sport leagues – National Basketball Association, Canadian Football League, National Hockey League, and Major League Baseball, amongst others.

Is most of the money concentrated in high performance sport?  This would include the professional leagues, plus high level athletes such as university- and college-level varsity athletics.  Also, athletes who play at the national and international level, but not part of professional sports.

Participation

The area really requiring more focus in Canada is the area of sport participation.  We must decrease the gap between those who participate in sport more for leisure and recreational purposes versus performance sport.  These are very different areas of the huge term we use that is ‘sport’.

We must invest more in getting all individuals participating in sport.

Your Call to Action

Find a sport you are interested in and try participating for a few days/weeks!

Further Reading

Based on your reading of this blog post, you may also be interested in: Okanagan Elite Athlete.

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These are one person’s thoughts and opinions.  I welcome and strive to get your feedback and own thoughts. Feel free to comment below or connect with me via social media.

Adam Goodwin is a Canadian working in the United Kingdom, and is a proud shameless idealist. His parents currently work in Cairo, Egypt. He has siblings and distant family in Canada and around the rainbow nation’s only home. Follow his year+ overseas on Twitter (@adam13goodwin) and on this blog.