Sport in Italy assumes an increasingly important economic weight. This is what emerges from a report published online by Focus Bnl. In 2011, sport generated a turnover of around 25 billion euros and accounted for 1,6% of gross domestic product. If related industries are also included (investments in public works, tourism, transport, media, etc.), the figure reaches almost 3 percentage points.
The interest that Italy has in sport also emerges from the data relating to the media. In our country there are three national newspapers that deal exclusively with sporti sports and gather over 6 million readers a day (the number is high if we consider that the Italians who read a newspaper are around 24 million a day). The television programs dedicated to sport grow from year to year and, in 2010, there were more than 1300 hours of broadcasts on public networks dedicated to the subject of sport.
Italian families have spent 22 billion euros on sport (equal to 2,3% of total consumption). The percentage is high if we consider that it is an amount equivalent to expenditure on communications (telephone, newspapers, media) and represents 17% of expenditure on foodstuffs.
Private companies are also investing in sport (with sponsorships, donations, sale of goods and services to sports clubs and purchase of advertising space in sports facilities) and the public sector. Between 2001 and 2009, public resources allocated to sport grew by 5%. The major investors are the Municipalities (54%), then the State (27%) and finally the Regions (11%).
If sport is increasingly important in the Italian system it is because the Italians who practice it are more and more. Compared to 2008, the year in which the economic recession started, the participation rate increased by 1,1 percentage points. If one goes even further back in time and arrives at 2001, there is an increase of 2,7 percentage points (equal to 1,6 million). The number of Italians who in 2011 declared not to play sports is 38,3% (more than 22 million people).
