The 2002 Report That Predicted The Future Of Sports
If you want to understand where sports are going, it helps to look back + some predictions for the next decade.
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The 2002 Report That Predicted The Future Of Sports
While flying to New York, I dug into a 2002 sports industry report (this is pre-iPhone, pre-YouTube, before NIL, streaming, private equity minority stakes, or even most of sports tech).
What surprised me?
Is how many of the trends we see today were already forming back then.
Let’s dive into that report, where we are now, and where the next decade is taking us.
Sports Themes in 2002 vs. Now
Looking back 23 years later… the patterns from 2002 have become many of the foundations of today’s landscape.
*The full report is posted in the Profluence platform (view here)
Pickup Play Was Dying
In 2000, 2.5× more kids played organized team sports than pickup sports.
And 12.3 million kids played no sports at all.
This graph does a nice job of visualizing sports participation from age 6-17 in 2000: