The Relative Demands for Sports and Leisure in England

This paper contributes to an emergent but growing literature, which is focusing on large-scale data analysis of mass participation sport. Distinct from the existing literature, a model is proposed in which sport demand is examined relative to the demand for other leisure, a structure suggested by micro-economic theory. Based on new data for England, which has been collected by the government department responsible for policy promoting Sport, Media and Culture, it is shown that the demand for sports is dependent upon the demand for leisure for the activities defined by the data collection exercise. This qualifies the existing literature and has implications for current policy.