The participation reports from the NSGA and SGMA are hitting the streets and both organizations hit on some key points in the last week in a run up to the release of the full numbers. The NSGA developed an index by state to signify how likely it would be for a person in a given state to participate in a specific sport or activity. The SGMA released some hard numbers on the number of participants in the most popular organized sports.
Based on the NSGA study, Michigan is the most active state among the eleven largest states in the U.S. that make up roughly 56% of the U.S. population. NSGA developed the index for each state by dividing a states percentage of participants in an activity by its percentage of the U.S. population and then multiplying by 100.
Michigan, NSGA pointed out, had 7.9% of the total participants in golf and 3.6% of the U.S. population, an index of 209, which would indicate that residents there are more than twice as likely to play golf than the national average. Michigan had indices above the national average in 24 of the 34 activities in the survey. California and North Carolina both had 22 of 34 participation indices above the average, while Illinois had 20, New York had 19, and New Jersey had 18 indices above the national average.
The index can be important, particularly for retailers, when accessing new store locations or making decision on the categories to support in a given state. The full NSGA report is available to members and non-members. Contact NSGA Research at 847-296-6742.
The SGMA participation study on organized sports showed that Basketball continues to lead all other sports. Contact SGMA Research at http://www.sgma.com.
