Cheaper sports grow the most

Fitness activities that fell into this group included step aerobics (up 21.0%), high and low impact aerobics (up 8.7% and 7.9% respectively), elliptical motion trainers (up 7.2%), dumbbells (up 6.2%) and walking for fitness (up 2.7%). Walking for fitness remains the most popular activity in the US with 111.7-m participants.

Family/social activities that showed significant growth were ultimate frisbee (up 20.8%), backpacking (up 18.5%), surfing (18.2%), racquetball (up 18.1%), court volleyball (up 17.2%), trail running (up 15.2%), indoor soccer (11.8%), bicycling (up 10.2%) and tennis (up 9.6%).

Since 2000, a number of fitness activities, competitive sports, and recreational endeavours have shown ‘statistically significant’ growth – especially in the fitness category.

Sports and Fitness Activities with the Highest Growth Rates Since 2000 (age 6 and above; U.S. residents; source: SGMA)

Rank/Sport	2008 Participation	Growth Rate Since 2000
1. Pilates Training	8 886 000	471%
2. Elliptical Motion Trainer	25 284 000	243%
3. Lacrosse	1 127 000	117%
4. Stretching	36 288 000	47%
5. Tennis	18 558 000	43%
6. Spinning	6 693 000	42%
7. Table Tennis	17 201 000	35%
8. Paintball	4 857 000	34%
9. Treadmill	49 371 000	32%
10. Running/Jogging	41 130 000	31%

Six of the top ten growing activities are fitness related, however the following athletic and recreational activities are of high interest among Americans:

» Team sports: The top three most popular team sports are basketball (26.3-m), baseball (15.0-m), and outdoor soccer (14.2-m).
» Racquet sports: Racquetball (up 18.1%), tennis (up 9.6%) and table tennis (up 7.8%) have shown a significant growth.
» Outdoor sports: The leading activities are freshwater fishing (40.3-m), bicycling (38.1-m), camping (33.7-m), and day hiking (32.5-m).
» Water sports: The top two growth activities in overall participation (2007 vs. 2008) are surfing (up 18.2% to 2.6-m participants) and snorkelling (up 10.8% to 10.3-m participants).
» Individual sports: Since 2000, the top growth sport for overall participation is bowling (up 12.9% to 58.7-m) and the other top most participated activities are billiards/pool (49.0-m), and golf (27.6-m).

According to SGMA, the sports and activities with the highest levels of interest among core participants in 2008 are fitness-related as fitness activities account for 11 out of the top 15 athletic pursuits.

Most Popular Sports and Fitness Activities Based on ‘Core’ Participation (age 6 and above; U.S. residents; source: SGMA)

Rank/Sport	2008 Participation	Core Level of Frequency
1. Walking for Fitness	76 375 000	50+ Days/Year
2. Treadmill	28 109 000	50+ Days/Year
3. Stretching	27 619 000	50+ Days/Year
4. Hand Weights	26 927 000	50+ Days/Year
5. Weight/Resistance Machines	23 469 000	50+ Days/Year
6. Running/Jogging	23 402 000	50+ Days/Year
7. Dumbbells	22 577 000	50+ Days/Year
8. Freshwater Fishing	21 415 000	8+ Days/Year
9. Bicycling (Road/Paved Surface)	19 950 000	26+ Days/Year
10. Billiards/Pool	17 178 000	13+ Days/Year
11. Basketball	17 672 000	13+ Days/Year
12. Barbells	17 318 000	50+ Days/Year
13. Home Gym Exercise	14 910 000	50+ Days/Year
14. Elliptical Motion Trainer	13 556 000	50+ Days/Year
15. Bowling	13 482 000	13+ Days/Year

While fitness is the industry’s leading overall participation category, many Americans initially get introduced to athletics through team sports.

Leading Team Sports Based on ‘Core’ Participants (age 6 and above; 2008 participants; U.S. residents; source: SGMA)

Rank/Sport	Core Participants	Total Participants	% of Core Participants
1. Basketball	16 672 000 (13+ days)	26 254 000	63.5%
2. Baseball	10 166 000 (13+ days)	15 020 000	67.7%
3. Outdoor Soccer	6 481 000 (13+ days)	14 223 000	45.6%
4. Slow-Pitch Softball	5 906 000 (13+ days)	9 835 000	60.0%
5. Touch Football	4 294 000 (13+ days)	10 493 000	40.9%

This year’s SGMA Sports & Fitness Participation Report has overall participation figures for 118 sports in nine different categories (aerobic activities, conditioning activities, strength activities, individual sports, racquet sports, team sports, outdoor sports, winter sports, and water sports). Copies of the SGMA Sports & Fitness Participation Report (2009 edition) are available from www.sgma.com.

This year’s study has been done as a joint effort of the USA Sports & Fitness Participation Study, a collaboration of sports associations that have been doing participation research separately for a number of years: Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, Tennis Industry Association, National Golf Foundation, IHRSA, Snowsports Industries America, and the Outdoor Industry Foundation.

During late January/early February of 2009, a total of 41 500 online interviews were carried out with a nationwide sample of individuals and households from the US Online Panel operated by Synovate. A total of 15 013 individual and 26 487 household surveys were completed. The total panel has over one million members and is maintained to be representative of the US population. Over sampling of ethnic groups took place to boost response from typically under responding groups. A weighting technique was used to balance the data to reflect the total US population aged six and above. The following variables were used: gender, age, income, household size, region, and population density. The total population figure used was 279 568 000 people aged six and above.

The online methodology allows for re-contacting specific groups of sports participants such as frequent runners or home gym users for follow-up consumer targeted research. Individuals who have recently stopped playing or participating can also be targeted for follow-up interviews. This provides the opportunity for companies to develop deeper consumer research in areas including brand tracking, point-of-purchase influences, purchase frequencies and usage/attitude studies.