Sports teams probably won’t have to spawn new promotional ploys to draw fans to stadiums or arenas. Recession or no recession, they’ll be biting the bullet to root for their favorite sides in person anyway.
That’s the indication from a recent online survey commissioned by Octagon Marketing to gauge the projected impact of the current economic downturn on attendance at sporting events and TV viewing of them.
Only 10% of sports fans who’ve attended a sports event within the last year said the financial fallout would adversely affect them. In comparison, 22% of sports attendees who aren’t fans indicated their attendance at events would be affected.
Responding to a question posed about leisure time activities, 64% of respondents said they’d continue to attend sports events. Meanwhile, only half of those surveyed said they would continue dining out, and slightly more than half said they’d go on vacations. For retailers, the results weren’t particularly bright, with 55% indicating they’d continue their mall shopping forays.
“Obviously one of those key benefits being served by sport is escapism. It’s a way to escape the stress of everyday life,” said Simon Wardle, senior vice president of Octagon’s insight and strategies unit.
And cable and satellite companies needn’t be concerned about subscribers canceling their subscriptions to sports channels anytime soon.
Nearly 94% of self-identified sports fans who watch one or more sports events on television every week indicated they would continue consuming as much or more sports events through that medium next year. And more than 90% of respondents who regularly surf sports sites online will continue to do that too.
“In these economic times, that lull that sports provides is as strong in people, particularly in watching sports on television,” Wardle said.
Wardle said that he had anticipated that a larger percentage of sports fans would indicate that they would be attending events less frequently. But he said the results clearly demonstrate the “recession-proof” quality of major teams sports in this country.
He suggested that the ongoing economic problems might affect sports that rely on ticket sales for revenue more heavily than they rely on TV carriage contracts, pointing to minor league baseball teams or the financially troubled Arena Football League as examples.
Survey Sampling conducted the e-mail survey for Octagon during the three days prior to Thanksgiving, and results were based on answers from 698 respondents.
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