The relationship between sports and the climate can be said to be complicated and rather ambivalent: on the one hand, emissions from sports contribute significantly to climate change, and on the other hand, heat waves and other extreme weather phenomena have a negative effect on competitions and affect the health and performance of athletes.
It is increasingly being argued that the industry, with its billions of spectators, athletes and sponsors worldwide, has an extremely broad social platform and geographic reach, and therefore can play a key role in raising awareness, influencing behavior and changing behavior related to climate change.
Climate change is already disrupting the game
The effect of the changing climate on sports around the world has been evident for several years, especially on large-scale events that attract millions of fans.
During the 2020 Australian Open, for example, some tennis players were forced to withdraw from the tournament due to poor air quality caused by forest fires. The US Tennis Association implemented an “extreme heat policy” after the 2018 US Open to allow players to take periodic breaks in the heat.
Already in 2015, there was a big problem, in New York Jack Sock had to be taken off the court due to heat exhaustion
This summer, a match at the European Football Championship in Germany had to be suspended due to a severe thunderstorm that brought extreme rain, lightning and hail, while in the same summer, at the Copa América soccer tournament in Kansas City, a referee collapsed on the pitch due to the high heat and humidity. .
However, the extreme heat does not only affect summer sports. A 2022 one study according to
half of the cities that hosted the previous Winter Olympics will not be able to host the Winter Olympics by 2050 due to the lack of snow and ice.
With a warming planet and unpredictable weather, the postponement or cancellation of competitions can be extremely disruptive for sports organizations, disappointing for athletes and spectators, and last but not least, it can cause huge economic problems.
The sports industry generates merciless money
The top 14 sports leagues generated $80.6 billion in annual revenue globally in 2023, a huge jump from the last year before Covid, when combined revenue was $66.2 billion, a 22 percent increase.
If we also take into account the income from the Olympics and the soccer tournament (4-year cycle), the value of the world’s most important competitions reached 97.6 billion dollars. And although the American football league, the NFL, generates the most annual revenue ($19.2 billion in 2023), let’s first stay in our own country, in the EU.
The reports according to
in the European Union, approximately every 47th euro and every 37th employee is directly related to sport.
About 190,000 businesses deal with sports, and they generate around 60 billion euros. According to the 2022 data, the expenditure of public households on sports is the highest in Hungary, at 1.7 percent. The most is spent on sports in the Netherlands, with households spending nearly 2 percent on this activity. In addition, 10 billion euros flow into the EU coffers from trade outside the continent.
So it can be seen that this sector generates very serious items, but let’s also look at the more serious economic effects.
Cities and countries can be economically boosted by a sporting event
Large outdoor events of professional leagues, which are most exposed to climate change – such as football, athletics or tennis – they have many advantages in the economy, since the events attract millions to tourism, they contribute to the generation of economic expenses of private developers. In addition, it boosts local economies by billions, creates jobs and increases tax revenues. The most important is the income generated in tourism and tourist traffic, as the turnover of hotels and restaurants jumps many times at this time, but the money spent in commercial units, i.e. in shops, also multiplies considerably.
Not to mention that a happy country that hosts a good event will always be an attractive destination for foreign investors.
This was particularly important for the Germans this summer in connection with the soccer European Championship, since Germany, as Europe’s largest economy, was stuck in a serious recession.
Many millions of euros were left in Munich by the fans coming to the soccer European Championship in the summer
According to a study by Munich’s Ifo Institute, the 2024 European Football Championship brought more than 1 billion euros in extra income to the German economy from foreign tourists alone, which increased German GDP by about 0.1 percent in the second quarter. We emphasize that only by foreigners and in a single quarterly cycle.
Looking at another outdoor sports mega-event, the US Open, one of the 4 annual Grand Slam tournaments, brings in $420 million a year for New York, more than the Yankees and Mets combined. The tournament requires 7,000 seasonal workers, and nearly 1 million spectators visit New York in two weeks. It was calculated that in 2023, tickets for the matches between Novak Djokovic and Coco Gauff alone were sold for about 500 million dollars.
The economic impact of the US Open has already completely permeated the region, as according to a study, the annual economic impact of the tournament is estimated at about 750 million dollars in New York City and its surroundings.
Other host cities also benefited during the Paris Olympic Games: Lille’s attendance increased by 188 percent, Saint-Étienne by 150 percent, and Marseille by 48 percent. During the Olympics, restaurants experienced the largest annual increase in consumption in Paris, which was +49 percent, and an overall economic recovery of 11.1 billion euros was expected.
They already got the gist of it
And then comes the ambivalence: isn’t climate change dangerous for big outdoor sports events? However, these events are terribly harmful in this regard. In spite of the fact that they bring a huge economic boom and social upliftment – which we discussed above – they can also have a huge carbon footprint. Flying to events, building stadiums, manufacturing sports equipment and the waste produced by participants all have a significant environmental impact.
According to estimates, for example, the 2016 Rio Olympics released 3.6 million tons of CO2, while the 2018 World Cup in Russia released 2.16 million tons –
this corresponds to the greenhouse gas emissions of more than 465,000 cars driven for a whole year.
This is also why this year Paris was considered an important litmus test for the International Olympic Committee (IOC), as it was the first application process in a long time where sustainability and the economic protection of the host were prioritized.
At this year’s Olympics, almost everyone traveled by bus or train between the competition venues
The Climate Policy Institute, for example it saysthat the buildings built for the Olympics were built with 30 percent less carbon emissions per square meter than those of previous Olympics. The emissions associated with transport have also been significantly reduced, since all the locations of the competitions have been made accessible by public transport. In addition, the power supply of all locations was covered 100 percent by renewable energy sources. The institute also reported that the 2024 Olympic flame was the first to not actually burn, instead using mist and light beams to achieve the perfect spectacle.
The problem has thus been recognized, and more and more emphasis is placed on sustainability, and thus on environmental protection, at global sports events. It is not yet known where this will lead to and what it will be enough for, but it is certain that climate change poses a tangible threat to large outdoor sports events, and if these disappear from the competition calendar, it could have a huge impact on the world economy.
Source: www.economx.hu
