The Economics of Sports Events: A $958B Industry Breakdown

What’s driving growth across global events, tourism, youth sports, and a fascinating company at its intersection.

This is pretty wild...

Sports now make up 1/4th of the entire global events market. Let that sink in.

Here’s the breakdown:

Global Events Market = $958 Billion
𝟮𝟴%: Business Events
𝟮𝟰%: Sports
𝟭𝟴%: Music Concerts
𝟭𝟱%: Conferences
𝟭𝟬%: Festivals
𝟬𝟱%: Others

So where does the revenue come from?
• Sponsorships ($441B)
• Ticketing ($325B)
• Other ($192B)

Today, we’re diving deep into this growing space — and spotlighting a company that’s quietly capturing the upside.

Let’s Dive In 👇

Sports Tourism Market

The global sports tourism market is estimated to grow by $771 billion over the next three years (15% CAGR via Technavio).

Some of the sports most-traveled for:
🎾 tennis
⚽ soccer
🏏 cricket
🏅 triathlon
👟 marathons
🏎 motorsports
🏁 adventure races

In the United States, we have:

• 2026 FIFA World Cup

• 2028 LA Summer Olympics

Tentpole events like these shape countries, not just sports.

But there’s one segment exploding under the radar…

Youth Sports Events

In a previous newsletter, we talked about how sports are AI-resistant because the congregation of people around a shared interest will not go away in our lifetime.

Youth sports may be the most misunderstood part of the events economy.

Unlike pro events with 50,000 fans in a stadium, youth tournaments send just as many people through the gates—but over an entire weekend, across multiple venues.

What used to be a part-time gig for local organizers has flipped.

Now, most youth sports partners run them as their full-time businesses.

And with growth comes consolidation:

• Fewer volunteers, more professionals

• Small leagues being swallowed up by more prominent players

• More demand than supply for fields, diamonds, and rinks

The challenge? Real estate.

Superparks are booming—but expensive to build and maintain. Still, the demand shows no signs of slowing.

Cool Company: EventConnect

As I started looking into the events space (and how it’s managed downstream into youth sports)…

I came across a fascinating company attacking this head-on: EventConnect.

Formed over a decade ago, they realized youth sports events rely on disconnected tools—from registration to hotel booking to scheduling and mobile communication.

EventConnect spent years figuring out how to bring it all together.

They landed on three core products:

1. Tournament Operators – dashboards + business logic

2. Hotels – interfaces for better communication with teams

3. Consumers – seamless registration, scheduling, and hotel booking

After exploring their website, I reached out and got the co-founder/CTO on the podcast for a fascinating discussion:

John also talked about how they’re layering in AI to optimize data for decision-makers:

• Predicting hotel demand

• Optimizing pricing and timing

• Benchmarking rates using historical data

Here’s some interesting data John was willing to share:

• Avg. Event Size: Average number of teams per event.

• % of travel: Percentage of teams that are traveling (vs local).

• Reg before Event: Average number of days before the event that teams register.

• Blocking after reg: Average number of days after registration that teams book hotel rooms.

• ADR: Average Daily Rate (hotel cost per night).

• Res/TT: Average hotel reservations per traveling team.

• RNs/TT: Average room nights per traveling team.

💡 Insights from the Data

• Most hotel revenue potential: Likely Field Lacrosse, Volleyball, and Hockey—great combo of travel %, ADR, and RNs/TT.

• Soccer drives volume: Big event size and decent travel %, with high ADR—good revenue per event.

• Basketball is the weakest for hotel ROI: Very low travel %, small ADR impact, low room nights.

Looking Ahead

Events will continue to grow in sports, from the global professional level down to youth athletics.

It’s a great time to be building in an increasingly popular vertical:

1. Sports will soon surpass business events as it continues to globalize.

2. IP from events is extremely valuable (as there are enormous opportunities for sublicensing around sports as more regions look to increase tourism).

3. Companies being built around sports event infrastructure, like EventConnect, are extremely fascinating.

Exciting times are ahead!