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White Hutchinson Leisure & Learning Group, Kansas City, MO, USA

Sports activities now exceed pre-pandemic levels

Last month's issue included an article: Has out-of-home entertainment returned to pre-pandemic levels? (www.whitehutchinson.com/ news/ lenews/ 2024/ august/ article102.shtml#article) It found that in 2023, both participation and time spent on an average day at entertainment and art venues were down significantly compared to pre-pandemic levels. The average participation rate was down by 31%, the average time spent was down by one-third, and both were down for all age groups.

The entertainment and arts data did not include sports. Surprisingly, both attendance at sporting events and participation in playing sports showed just the opposite trend.

The average attendance rate at sporting events on an average day in 2023 was down by 10%, while the average time on an average day attending sporting events was up 20% compared to pre-pandemic, making it an overall increase.

The average time spent in hours attending sports events was up significantly for all age groups with the except of ages 35-44.

Participation in playing sports was up for all age groups. And the average time spent playing sports on an average day increased slightly.

The participation rate for attending sports was up for all age groups compared with pre-pandemic rates.

It is hard to reconcile why the trend in attendance at sporting events and participation playing sports in 2023 is the opposite of attending entertainment and arts venues. It could be that the pandemic is still affecting people's perceptions of safety as most sports events are outside while entertainment and arts activities are mostly indoors. One factor is that now that we have many at-home digital entertainment and arts options, there is less incentive to leave the home for them while, especially for playing sports, you need to leave the home. Regardless of possible explanations, sports have become more competitive for people's out-of-home leisure time compared to attendance at entertainment and arts venues.

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