Contribution of sport to the economy: demand for common efforts

European Commission in the White Paper on Sport (2007) announced an initiative to develop a European statistical method for measuring the economic impact of sport as a basis for national statistical accounts for sport. EU Work Plan for Sport 2011-2014 argues the economic aspects of sport, in particular evidence based policy-making as a priority theme for EU level cooperation in sport. The aim of the theoretical research is to introduce with a current situation of the common efforts from EU and national institutions towards measurement of the contribution of sport to the economy. A document analysis method was applied. The contribution of sport to economy is measured by three indicators: revenue generated from sport activities and its share in the gross domestic product, employability, i.e. the number of employed persons and the economic value created by them, and the added value from sport related activities. An agreement at EU level is made to a unified economic sports market valuation methodology. Nevertheless a certain sporting activities and their role in the socirty by creating added values of the sports market ditfers. The economic impact of sports analysis to the national economy becomes important in the context of each country. There fore the efforts at national level both from governmental institutions (Ministries, national statistical offices) and sport bodies as well as co-ordination policy from European level both from responsible sport institutions as well Eurostat are needed for a common actions towards sustainable measurement process of the contribution of sport to the economy.