UK Consumer Spending for attending live sport to beat Olympic record by 2016

What a summer it’s already been for sports fans in the UK, reaching the ultimate climax this weekend with Wimbledon women’s and men’s final matches, Formula I Grand Prix in Silverstone and the Grand Depart of the Tour de France kicking off in Yorkshire for its first three-day cycling race from Leeds to London before crossing the channel to France.

Petra Kvitova (right) of Czech Republic is 2014 Wimbledon Women's Singles Champion, beating Canada's Euginie Bouchard in a stunning victory of 6-3 6-0 to win her second Wimbledon title.
This year, Wimbledon officials enforced its all-white rule on players' apparel by banning coloured undergarments.

According to new market research by Mintel, Britain’s support for live sport is growing, although Britain’s sports fans may be hanging their heads after the defeats in the World Cup, Wimbledon and the Cricket’s Test Series against Sri Lanka this summer.

With the culmination of the World Cup, the Tour de France and Wimbledon, this weekend should be sports heaven for the UK’s sports fans with over half of Brits (55%) having watched live football matches and 42% live tennis matches via any method in the past year.   Indeed, with more than a third (35%) of Brits classified as current cyclists, the Tour de France too should receive high levels of spectatorship.  In addition, it seems Brits are beginning to be bowled over by cricket. Whilst one in five (21%) Brits said they watched a live cricket match via any method in 2013, this figure rose to almost a quarter (24%) in 2014.

For the first time since the peak of the London Olympics in 2011, consumer expenditure on attending live sport is rising, with sales forecast to reach £1.4 billion in 2014, an impressive 7% ahead of 2013 and set to reach £1.5 billion by 2016, topping the Olympic ticket sales of 2012.

Paul Davies, Senior Leisure and Technology Analyst at Mintel, said:"The London Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012 took the value of the spectator sports market to a level never seen before, as spectators made every effort to attend the first Olympic Games held in the UK since 1948. A year later, a seat on Centre Court to witness Andy Murray’s first Wimbledon title proved to be one of the ‘golden tickets’ to have in 2013, alongside England’s home series victory in the Ashes test series against Australia." Paul said."In recent years, the pull of potentially witnessing British success has boosted sports such as tennis and cricket, something which is likely to drive crowds to the Commonwealth Games in 2014, the Rugby World Cup in 2015 and the return of the home Ashes test series the same year. As a result, the value of the spectator sports market is now expected to return to and even exceed the level seen in 2011 (when the majority of Olympic tickets were sold)." Paul added.

It seems that for Brits, watching sport live at the game is enjoyed for the atmosphere of the crowd – with a third (31%) of event spectators saying it is generally worth paying to attend live sport events purely for the atmosphere.

As to where in the country are the sports fans gathering?  It seems that London holds the most sports fans with nine in 10 (90%) Londoners watching live sport in the past year.Yorkshire, Humberside are second with four in five (82%), and the North and Scotland at 78%. The smallest number of enthusiasts however, are in the South East and East Anglia where three in four (75%) have enjoyed live sport in the past year, the South East and East Anglia as well as East and West Midlands stand at 76%.