ABSTRACT
The sports industry has enjoyed rapid growth over the past century, especially in the most recent few decades. However, continued sports growth is challenged by increased expenses, a decline in public funding, and consumers’ inability to pay. In this chapter, I argue that sports involvement is created by playing sports, attending sports events live, and consumer sports in the media, especially with friends and family. As most sports are faced with aging fan bases, many sports organizations are developing strategies and tactics to grow business from existing fans and develop new fan markets, especially youth, female, ethnic, and geographic markets.
