Led by growth in the valuations for media rights and sponsorship dollars, the North American sports market will advance at a compound annual rate of nearly 5% through 2017, according to the latest research from PricewaterhouseCoopers.
PwC’s Sports Outlook projects that the North America sports market will expand across four sectors to $67.7 billion in 2017, marking a compound annual growth rate of 4.8% from $53.6 billion in 2012.
Although gate receipts will remain the largest of the four segments over the period, increasing at a CAGR of 3.9% from an estimated $15.7 billion in 2012 to $19.1 billion, both media rights and sponsorship growth will outstrip the historic category leader over that span.
Media rights are forecast to increase at a CAGR of 7.7% from some $11.8 billion in 2012 to $17.1 billion in 2017, as a number of new deals come into play during the five-year outlook. Although PwC doesn’t specify in its report, new long-term Major League Baseball and National Football League contracts with major rights bumps kick off in 2014.
