ABSTRACT
The previous chapters of this book have looked at how the sports business has changed since the 1980s to today and have pointed out the peculiar nature of this now global sports business. Such peculiarities include the following:
Nike, the global leader of the sports-shoe market, sub-contracts nearly all of its production to Chinese and other Asian manufacturers yet still retains high profits and value added for the United States economy;
A first-round snooker match in the 2009 World Championship had a live attendance of 893 people at the Crucible Theatre Sheffield (of which at least half were watching another match) and yet gained a live audience of over 110 million in China, a new record for a live TV audience for a snooker match. The match was Ding Junhui versus Liang Wenbo. The most famous match in snooker history, the 1985 World Championship final between Steve Davies and Dennis Taylor, attracted a live television audience of 18.5 million, mainly in the UK, which was then a new record. The average live UK TV audience for a World Championship match today is only around 2 million.
Non-profit-making international governing bodies of sport, such as the IOC and FIFA, sell the broadcasting rights to their events for billions of dollars, most of which is profit.
A domestic football competition, the English Premier League, is shown live in 211 countries and obtains over $2 billion from the sale of these international broadcasting rights.
