This report will look briefly at the history and the role of sport in society (Chapter 2), the policy environment in which sports operates in South Africa and internationally (Chapter 3), a brief introduction to the economics of sport (Chapter 4), and the
Sport is a complex activity ranging from a group of school children playing soccer in the veld to mega events for professional athletes including the Olympic Games or major world cups. Sport includes a recreational jogger, park runner or an athlete competing in the Comrades Marathon - a competition with thousands of participants and people watching the ultra-marathon on television. All of these people all participate in sport in some way.
Modern sport is multifaceted, differentiated, and it is able to satisfy the most diverse activity needs of individuals and society. It is an essential and important aspect of modern society. Sports are indispensable when it comes to their impact in areas such as economics and even broadcasting and the mass media.
Although the pecuniary value is the focus of this report, the intrinsic value cannot be ignored. The intrinsic value looks at additional criteria including the role of sport for “its own sake”, the health benefits in contributes to, the enjoyment aspects, as well as sports role in nation building, national pride and social cohesion.
An important aspect for developing a framework to measure the value of the sports and recreation economy and developing a Sports Satellite Account is the definition of what sport is. There are many components that support the practice of sport, (for example the manufacture of athletic shoes), that are not classified according to the international System of National Accounts. Nor these disaggregated within the South African statistical system. Besides the number of sporting codes and sporting federations that have been identified other systems have been identified that can be used to group these into logical categories.
Once the categorisation systems have been defined and accepted, further research is needed to determine what percentage of each of the traditional economic sectors contains a component of the sporting economy. Once this has been done, a Sport Satellite Account needs to be developed econometrically (either from an input output table or a social accounting matrix). From this it can be estimated what the size of the sports economy is in South Africa, as well as other factors such as trade and employment.
The paper also looks at the practical issues that will be faced when implementing a framework for measuring the sports and recreation economy. These include issues such as database management data software and econometric modelling techniques. The report also deals with the legal issues that could arise and also proposes a number of agreements with strategic partners.
